In The Summertime, When The Weather Is Fine

Across A Section Of The Back Garden

The month of June went by in a whirl of activity. We had wall-to-wall sunshine which meant we were able to sit out in our back garden with family and friends. Some came to stay; others for lunch, Afternoon Tea or dinner; and with some we went on holiday.

Annuals in Pots

This meant that I did not have time to visit my friends in Blogland...but, I shall do so this month. Normally, our really beautiful weather last for only a few days...but, this Summer, we have had weeks of sunny weather, which has made all the difference to the garden.

Underside of an Orange tip Butterfly

We have had early visits from butterflies and insects, hoverflies and interesting hawk moths. There has never been such abundant blossom on our honeysuckles and the plants, in general, have flowered earlier too.

Angelica

Dotted around the garden are stately Angelicas which have reached phenomenal heights. I am surprised they have not needed staking. From one tiny seed comes so much joy, both in the foliage as well as the globular seed-heads. They are particularly good for children to grow, as is the Teasel, because both grow to maturity quickly.

Mixed Foliage In The Front Garden

The bench in this photo faces the front of our house and gets the sun all day, so Taz, the Barn Cat, often snoozes there. It also affords privacy, so anyone passing along the road is unseen. As it faces one of our ponds we can sit for hours watching birds and insects bathing and drinking.

Bumble Bee On Cirsium Thistles

This Cirsium has grown to an amazing height of seven feet this Summer. The bees and insects adore the sustenance they get and we love their humming chorus. As, in previous months, I have tried to capture as much of the changes in the garden as I can through the video mode of my camera.

Taz, The Barn Cat

Our pets always seem to me to be in a permanent state of bliss. Nothing much phases them. Taz has dreamed away the hot sunny days, lazing in all the sheltered spots around the garden. On the sticky days he knew where the coolest places were too.

Papaver Orientalis, Red Oriental Poppies

Our Oriental Poppies bloom for six weeks from the beginning of June...so, they are just going over now. For those who are not familiar with the garden, the main colour-scheme follows the cooler part of the spectrum with some white and yellow. But, the vibrant reds and oranges, and the cooler pinks and whites of the Oriental poppies brighten up the subtle hues of the rest of the year.

Papaver Orientalis Curlylocks

It's exciting to watch the garden come alive, day by day, with the dinner-plate sized heads, the enormous inky-black anthers and the large green seedpods of these poppies. Bees bury themselves in the anthers, too.

Papaver Orientalis Dawn Pink

This species is a new acquisition for the garden. Little spotted insects seemed to enjoy being in its head. I liked the pink markings, as opposed to the black, and the subtlety of the shade of pink. The first video is called Poppymania and the music I used for accompaniment is Pachelbel's Canon.

Papaver Orientalis Dusky Pink

You can also see some of my annual poppies on the video. The second video is called June Melody At Barleycorn and the music which accompanies it is Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor.
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Happy viewing...and I'll be visiting soon.

Halcyon Days At Barleycorn In The Month Of May

Taz, the Barn Cat

Hal Borland is quoted as saying 'April is a promise that May is bound to keep' and I couldn't agree more. After such a long winter, with five weeks of snow and freezing cold, we have had a relatively mild May with a mini-heatwave into the bargain.

Orange Tipped Butterfly

The sunny weather brought the return of the garden fairies...the butterflies. So swift is the Orange Tipped in flight, that it took me a whole day to capture one photograph, though I managed to take video snippets of the Large White.

Wasp on A Centaurea

From the beginning to the end of the month my camera has been set, more or less, at video mode. All manner of interesting insects, bees and butterflies with their diaphanous wings, appeared, as if by magic, as the days grew warmer.

A Carder Bee, Bombus Pascuorum, on a Centaurea

Anyone within earshot of the garden was serenaded from dawn to dusk by several male Blackbirds singing their madrigals and the hum of the all-important bees, as they gathered nectar and pollinated the plants. Joining the Spring dance, the trees gradually donned lush Spring coats, and some even covered themselves in vibrant blossom.

Female Blackbird With Grubs

So far this year we have four pairs of Blackbirds nesting around the garden, three pairs of Swallows in the eaves of the barn, many Sparrows nesting in the ivy growing up the outside of the barn and a pesky Heron helping himself, unfortunately, to the colony of frogs in the two ponds.

Crab Apple blossom

Apart from chasing him away when I see him, there's not much else I can do, as I love all wildlife and believe that each plays its part in the magical web of life. After all, the ponds could not support all the tadpoles growing into mature frogs.

Pagoda Lilies, Erythroniums

Though we have seen several Martins flying overhead, so far, none has taken possession of the old nests...and a pair of Sparrows have now moved into one. The Martins were also a week late in returning this year, which may account for the Sparrows grabbing the main chance.

The Barn

Since April 2009, I have been keeping a record of photographs and videos of a few Great Spotted Woodpeckers which come to the garden. The slightest sign of movement and they fly off. It is usually their drumming which alerts me to their presence.

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Male

These Woodpeckers are about the same size as Blackbirds. The male has a red nape, while the female does not. The juvenile has a red hood. They all have red rumps. They are aggressive towards other birds at the feeders and think nothing of using their beaks to see them off.

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Female

In the video of the Woodpeckers, aggressive females commandeer the feeders and swing between them to chase off the smaller birds. Their behaviour always reminds me of Rudyard Kipling's poem...Now this is the law of the jungle...

Great Spotted Woodpecker, Juvenile

Even the juveniles are strong enough to play King of the Castle at the feeders, and, if hungry enough, they will fly at the smaller birds to shoo them away. I am so grateful for a fleeting visit, for, often, all I catch is a glimpse of the flash of red on their rumps as they fly off to the nearby wood.
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Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.
Leonardo da Vinci
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Enjoy the videos...and turn up the volume at the end of the second one, Halcyon Days At Barleycorn In The Merry Month Of May, to hear the Spring lambs bleating. The first, Great Spotted Woodpeckers, Apr09-May10, has Saint-Saens' Pianists for accompaniment.

Every Spring Is The Only Spring

Tadpoles In Egg Cells

Please click * (footnote before the videos) on each photograph to see the amazing detail, and you will see why, for me, Spring is the most marvellous season. I was born in the month of April, and each year I am filled with Spring Fever. Having not one, but, two ponds here at Barleycorn, I am fortunate to be able to observe each stage in the life-cycle of the common frog at close quarters.

Taddies With Gills

Each Spring I marvel at this miraculous spectacle of Nature with renewed enthusiasm. It matters not that I have witnessed it for each of the past twenty years since my Hubbie first created the ponds...for every Spring is the only Spring.

Tadpoles Swimming Freely

With my camera set to video mode, I went out each day and recorded the changes in their development, from spawn to tadpole. You can watch the results in the first little video, Barleycorn Taddies, at the end of this post and be filled with wonder at the metamorphosis.

Female Blackbird Gathering Nesting Material

As well as the frenzy of activity in the ponds, beginning each day with the Frog Chorus, we have also had the pleasure of being awakened by the Dawn Chorus, and a wonderful serenading Song Thrush...both of which are better than any alarm clock at enticing me out of bed. Because we have a lot of chaff left over from last year's spent flower stems, the usual suspects have been gathering their nesting material.

Blackbird's Nest

Each Autumn, I leave a crown of growth around my plants to protect them from severe frosts and to offer nesting material for the birds in Spring. This year, we have watched three pairs of Blackbirds, a Thrush, three pairs of Jackdaws and Titmice gathering chaff, moss, wool and twigs to make their nests.

Goldfinches And A Siskin

Nuts and seeds sustain the birds when they are feverishly engaged in building their nests. In the second video, Billing And Cooing, you will see a female blackbird using her beak to wrestle and tug chaff from the earth, for a whole day, and persevere until her beak could support no more strands, before flying off to a nearby Pine, where she began to weave her magic.

Siskin On A Garden Light

I do not use the word 'magic' lightly, to describe the truly wonderful creation of a bird's nest, for their intricacy never ceases to amaze me, knowing that, even with the use of a pair of hands, my effort would be a poor attempt. Though we found the nest lying on the ground the next day, the Blackbird began the marathon all over again, this time building the nest in a more sheltered Pine.

Double-Petalled Daffodil

Whenever our daffodils burst forth, I am always reminded of the exuberant song from the Mikado...
# The Flowers That Bloom In The Spring, Tra La #
... because they are further confirmation that Spring has arrived at last at Barleycorn. Another sign is the first appearance of 'our' Swallows, newly returned from their long trip from Africa to their nests in the Barn. This year we are fortunate to have three returning pairs.

Naturalised Daffodils

With the Swallows playing Spitfires, zooming in and out of the Barn from dawn to dusk each day, the car is once again sporting a dustsheet for the duration of our Barn visitors' sojourn. Further evidence of Spring is the fact that my log-piles have dwindled as pairs of Jackdaws replenished their nests in the Barn's three chimneys.

Orange-Centred Daffodil

There are five Dandelion plants in full bloom at the moment, given house-room in our garden so that Queen Bumble bees have sustenance when they crawl out of their underground hideaways each Spring... for our garden is very much one designed to encourage wildlife to take up residence.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly On Scilla

Small Tortoiseshell and Large White butterflies overwinter in the Barn. Several times over the years I have managed to rescue a few from cobwebs to enable them to fly off and begin their life-cycle. In the third video, Flowering At Barleycorn, you will see Taz, my constant companion, as I took the footage. Though our garden is very much in the early stages of Spring, with many joys still to unfold as the season progresses, I already feel I am bursting with joy, blessed with the wonder and majesty of it all and feeling positive about what the garden means in terms of conservation...reminding me we are the stewards of the earth.
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Don't forget to turn up the volume to enjoy the musical accompaniment and the sounds of Nature in the background. Enjoy!
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Click * If you decide to click to enlarge a photo, you can then click on a corner and the photo will open up to the size of the whole page...and then you will see everything in glorious detail!

The music accompanying Barleycorn Taddies is Delibes' Pizzicati.

The music accompanying Billing And Cooing is Kriesler's Schon Rosmarin.

The music accompanying Flowering At Barleycorn is Grieg's To The Spring, from his Lyric Pieces.

Celebrating The Rebirth Of Easter At Barleycorn

Snowdrops

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain;Gulls Following The Plough

Love lives again, that with the dead has been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Coal Tit Singing

In the grave they laid Him, Love Whom we had slain,
Thinking that He’d never wake to life again,

Aconites

Laid in the earth like grain that sleeps unseen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Blue Tits On Weathervane

Up He sprang at Easter, like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;

Crocuses

Up from the dead my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Frog Mating

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;

Taz, The Barn Cat

Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

Sunset

The music accompanying the first video, Drifts Of Snowdrops At Barleycorn, is Mendelssohn's Spring Song.

Drifts Of Snowdrops At Barleycorn

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The music accompanying the second video, Springtime At Barleycorn, is Vivaldi's Spring, from The Four Seasons.

Springtime At Barleycorn

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Happy Easter, Everyone!

Fantastic Mr Fox!

Garden Birds At The Feeder


Since my last post we have had a mixed bag of weather with more falls of snow. Chaffinches, Titmice, Robins and Blackbirds flocked to the bird-table and the feeders to get as much sustenance as possible to survive this fierce Winter.

Garden Birds

However, though we still have overnight temperatures of below zero, today we experienced the warmth of the sun. Since the beginning of the month I have been serenaded by a beautiful Song Thrush. As if by magic, Spring is slowly creeping up on us.

Two Blue Tits On The Weathervane

As well as the flocks of pigeons I spoke about last month, hundreds of crows began to join them in the field adjacent to Barleycorn.

Crows At Barleycorn


The noise they made was deafening and they arrived in such quantities that I was reminded of the Hitchcock film called The Birds.

Crows In The Snowstorm

I decided to take footage of them all and you can watch their antics in the little video at the foot of this post.

Foxy's Footprints In The snow

One night I laid out bacon rind on the bird-table to give the early birds a good feed the next morning. Low and behold, I noticed there had been a fox. It was so cold he would have come to scavenge for anything he could find to keep out the cold. Some nights are better than others, in terms of food for a fox, so, given the opportunity, a fox will take what he can find.

Foxy Eating Cat Food

I am well aware that many people regard foxes as vermin and that they are shot by many farmers, who then complain that their fields are overrun with rabbits, moles, mice and rats, which the fox eats. But it's my belief that every creature has its place in the web of life.

Foxy Eating Fish

I decided to enjoy the brief visit of Fantastic Mr Fox and give him some sustenance to keep out the Winter chills. Each night I waited, camera in hand, for the magical hour when he appeared. I admired his beautiful chestnut coat, the black behind his ears, his magnificent brush and the twinkle in his eyes as he gorged himself on his delicious supper.

Foxy On The Table


He never stayed long. Many of my photos turned out blurry, due, in part, to his constant movement. But, I was mesmerised by him and looked forward to his antics each night. Foxes are omnivorous, feeding on small birds, mammals, insects, berries and the odd chicken or three, if they get lucky. It is possible to rear chickens successfully, for many people do, in spite of foxes living in their neighbourhoods.

Foxy In The Night

Though foxes are known to farmers as raiders of their poultry, they do help the farmer by destroying many rodents. However, there are also lots of myths generated about foxes in order to justify killing them, and these persist, despite evidence to the contrary, and, so, the attitude to foxes remains polarised.

Foxy On The Chair

Foxes have always lived in the countryside. But, due to more and more housing development, their natural territory is being eaten up, so much so, that many foxes now live in cities, which, previously, had been their habitats. I don't understand the visceral hatred some people harbour towards foxes. My parents were farming people, and their parents before them, and they lived in peace with all the wildife around them and successfully reared chickens and lambs.

Foxy's Brush

As far as I know nobody has ever caught a disease from a fox. Neither do they attack humans. If anything, they tend to give us a wide berth. I can understand farmers not liking a fox if it affects their livelihood, but as far as I'm concerned, if farming is your business, you should be able to house your animals suitably so that foxes can't get in. As wild animals they will act instinctively and can't be blamed for what they do. I enjoyed my spot of fox-watching because I think foxes are beautiful creatures, to be admired for surviving... in spite of Mankind...and I also feel privileged to have shared Fantastic Mr Fox's company on his nocturnal visits to Barleycorn.
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The music accompanying Birds Over Barleycorn video is Hot Ice taken from my CD of A Mid-Summer Night's Dream. The accompaniment to Fantastic Mr Fox video is another track, called Strange Snow from the same CD. Turn up the volume and enjoy a spot of bird and fox-watching!