After a week away in the Lake District we returned to find spring edging cautiously into the wild garden. Some frog-spawn has hatched into tadpoles; some remain blobs of jelly. Rampant wild plants such as alkanet (
Pentaglottis sempervirens), nettles (
Urtica dioica), couch grass (
Eletrygia repens), great willow-herb (
Epilobium hirsutum) and meadow sweet (
Filipendula ulmaria) are showing themselves. I have to decide where I want them and where they must be restrained. A beautiful snakes-head fritillary (
Fritillaria meleagris) that I had completely forgotten about has popped up and burst into flower. I must have bought the bulb on impulse last year and buried it more in hope than expectation. I see in my flower-book that it is a south-of-England plant, so perhaps I have anticipated global warming by encouraging them in Edinburgh.
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| Fritillary |
There are pond-skaters on the pond. (Family
Gerridae. There are many varieties)
Various small birds are undoubtedly nesting, but I have not yet made a positive identification of any specific nests. I have not learned how to do this without disturbing the birds. I have had some fun with the zoom on my camera at the bird-feeders. One of the things I have more and more felt as I get older is the fascination and pleasure in the ordinary. Of course it is nice to see a waxwing, but the blue tits are wonderful wild-life too.
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| Goldfinches | | | |
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| Grey Squirrel |
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| Sparrow |
Grey Squirrels arouse a mixture of emotions, I know. If I lived in a place where red squirrels were threatened, I would encourage the reds and discourage the greys. Here the greys are part of the life.
I have mentioned before that the variety of buds in the hedge are always interesting. Here are some photos of them today.
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| Sycamore |
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| Hawthorn |
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| Hazel (The Beech on the right thinks it is still winter) |
Things happen fast in spring once the weather warms up. I hope to have several more chapters soon.
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