Yesterday we had a service at church
for blessing “pets and animals”. Some of my friends took dogs. I
think I was the only person to take animals that were not pets. In a
small pail I had a few woodlice, three small slugs, three garden
snails and one small snail. There was also a handful of leaf litter
and a tuft of grass, with earth-covered roots, so goodness knows how
many thousands of microscopic creatures there were.
The creatures were selected for their
ability to live in a bucket for a morning without distress, and
because they were sufficiently slow-moving not to escape. In fact the
snails were pretty lively, and I had to keep detaching them from the
rim and putting them back among the leaf litter. Most people seemed to
think I was doing it as a joke. Far from it. The forms of life that
are to humans insignificant, or even a nuisance, are as much part of
the nature that we must cherish as are the furry creatures with big
brown eyes that we find so appealing. It was nice to meet some
children who found the snails things of fascination and beauty.
It was so hot at lunch-time that,
mini-beasts restored to their homes, I lazed on a chair in the shade.
It has been a lovely September in Edinburgh – call it late summer
or early autumn as you wish. The combination of mellow sun and of
touches of yellow among the leaves give the garden a golden aura
which I am not clever enough to catch on camera, but which is very
special. There are some lines by Dylan Thomas: “…and green and
golden, I was huntsman and herdsman…” Green and golden is a very
attractive mixture.
The main work is, and will continue to
be, cutting back. I have let too much grow too freely in the last
twelve months or so and there is a lot to do. One of the dilemmas for
a wild gardener is to decide what to cut and what to leave. Possibly
a suburban waste of nettles, ivy, self-seeded ash and willow herb
would be good for wild-life. But this is also a garden, where with
lots of different patches I try to keep things in balance. Anyhow, I
am doing the cutting a little at a time. This is partly laziness, but
it also means that amphibians and invertebrates disturbed in one area
can move a yard or two and find fresh seed-heads and hollow stems and
tangled old grass. One area that I must give some time to is the
pond. If it becomes a swamp, with no open water, it will be a very
different habitat from what we have become used to.
One advantage of cutting back is the
frequent sightings of shy creatures. There was a fine Elasmucha
grisea, Parent bug, sitting still on a leaf. It is one of the
commoner sorts of shield-bug.
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| Parent bug |
There have been enough little frogs to
give hope for the future population. There have been many sorts of
bumble-bee and hover-fly. The biggest hover-flies look ferocious, but
I gather that their similarity to stinging or biting insects is a
trick to deter predators.
One lovely sight just now is small
gnats dancing in the sun against a dark background. I have no idea
what variety they are, but they are not biters. In fact I use the
word “gnat” as an ignorant layman, not as a scientist or
fisherman. I guess that their presence justifies the ponds and the
wet moss, and the absence of pesticides. There are harvest-men around,
with huge legs; and my grandson was pleased to have a lady-bird crawl
on his hand.
On Saturday there was a familiar noise
that made me look up. A skein of at least fifty geese flew across,
high and going north. I claim no credit for them, of course, but I
hope their breeding and feeding grounds are protected.
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