Well, here we are nearly at midsummer. The garden here, in White End, is in its pomp. The roses are all in flower and the scent as we brush past them is very heady. The peonies and clematis are also flowering fit to burst. Just started picking sweet peas which fill the house with such fabulous perfume. I guess if we get the thunderstorms they are promising the garden will be flattened tomorrow again, but it is glorious now.
Wildlife is still a bit thin on the ground really but I guess they will catch up. We do have a cuckoo back so that is a relief and we have a tawny owl who calls every lunch time and we occasionally here him in the night. I think he must have a nest nearby. We have had buzzards circling as we do every year but we have not heard their mewing cries so maybe it’s a little early for young.
Our blue tits have fledged and are now all gone. I hope all 9 survive. In the hedge of next doors garden there is a family of sparrows who have been using the pond for bathing and drinking and sometimes they have been joined by the many blackbirds we have nesting around the garden. It is fascinating to watch them all waiting their turn, on the bench. I have also seen fleeting glimpses of black caps.
The biggest excitement this week was the arrival of a bullfinch. We used to get them regularly some 30 years ago but this is the first for many a year. I was sitting in the front room and it came and sat on the window frame tapping the window. Magic.
The field is looking magnificent with all the flowers and grasses. One new arrival is Fox and Cubs (Pilosella aurantiaca also know as, orange hawk bit, devil's paintbrush, grim-the-collier) is a perennial flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae that is native to alpine regions of central and southern Europe, where it is protected in several regions. A very pretty flower but watch out, as it seeds profusely.
Still have not seen many butterflies but a few. Namely Red Admiral, Small copper, a couple of Brimstones and of course the usual unnamed white ones!!!! We do, however, have many bees. The mining bees are back in the front garden and we have buff tailed bumble bees in a nest under the mint bed. All the plants are bringing in the usual suspects. The cotoneaster last week could be heard buzzing from the kitchen.
And finally we have seen ladybird larvae and red damsel flies.
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