There is a famous phrase from a chidrens’ poem written in the 1760s by Isaac Watts that asks: “How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour?” ... and the answer in our case is by industrious labouring in our Socially Distant Garden. What, you will be wondering, loyal reader, has [...]
After over a week of unseasonably cold northerly winds that held spring bird migration back things changed overnight and we are in a south-westerly air flow that's a bit warmer. Quite a change and we have spent half the day glued to the windows watching the garden, especially the waterfall, as bird [...]
May-Day turned out to be a very birdy day in the (locked-down) garden starting with ten or a dozen White-throated Sparrows who stuck around all day and were busy singing to the accompaniment of more of their kind in gardens up and down the road. You can never have too many Sparrows. [...]
Mourning Cloak butterfly, appeared in the garden last week after overwintering in a sheltering crack somewhere We spend a lot of our lives doing gardening things and watching the wildlife regardless of whether the virus and the government allow us to wander further afield. Despite that, however, there is a [...]
Solitude with a Spade - A New Garden Journal Gardening is balm for the soul Coronavirus is here and until there is a treatment or a vaccine, at least a year away, it is sensible to be realistic and accept that social distancing at least is going to be with us for [...]
Messy Eater Blood on the Snow We’ve noted before that the berries on the native Viburnum triloba are eaten in the fall while those on the similar European species (Guelder rose) are left until well into the New Year. Obviously those of the native species are more palatable while the [...]
As faithful followers of this journal will have gathered, there are a lot of squirrels around here. Although most of our gardening is designed to provide food and shelter to birds and insects it is a given that squirrels will take advantage ... as do raccoons and skunks and mice and all sorts [...]
The 21 January each year is Squirrel Appreciation Day - as we were reminded throughoout the day by numerous emails and FB posts from the various conservation organizations that we support. A couple of days later this rather scruffy black-form gray squirrel visited the garden in order to do some appreciating of [...]
The garden bird interest continues - after yesterday's unbeatable visit of a group of Eastern Bluebirds. Dark-eyed Juncoes. hardly uncommon at this time of year, we see them daily. However small, dark birds silhouetted against bright white snow are far from the easiest things to get decent photographs of. Well, no longer. [...]
Bluebirds in Mid-Winter !!! It's the 17 January, the sun is shining from a clear blue sky, temperatures are -16C (with windchill -27C) and there we are, sitting in the warm reading the papers when a small bird lands in the viburnum bush just outside. A quick glance, not expecting anything other [...]