Bobby-Dazzlers, Every One!

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

The month of August is high Summer for us, the time when the garden has a blowsy, overgrown appearance. Foxgloves hang heavy with next year's seed. The majestic stems of Verbascums, stiff Oriental Poppy pepperpots, and the tangle of spent growth on the Geraniums, all now wizened and brown, conspire to say that Autumn is creeping in. But, into that tangled mess fly all the fairies, with their newly-painted diaphanous wings.

Peacock Butterfly on Inula Daisies


Their magical appearance never ceases to amaze me as I gaze upon their beauty with a heart full of joy and wonder. The fact that we are 225 metres above sea-level, and, therefore, colder and wetter, must have a bearing on the infrequent sightings of butterflies. Considering the layout of the garden has more nectar borders containing host plants for several species, than anything else, it has always saddened me to find so few sightings.

Red Admiral Butterfly

Throughout the Summer we see Small Whites and Large Whites on a regular basis. They lay their eggs on the patches of nettles, to which I give house-room especially to encourage butterflies. If I have grown Nasturtiums, as I have in my Summer meadow this year, their leaves will look like lace curtains by the end of the season.

Small White Butterfly

But...towards the end of August, we have this magical rainbow of colour...red, russet, azure blue, orange, bronze and creamy-white. They all congregate on the Inula Daisies. I have spread these around the garden over the years. But, it is always the patch on which the sun shines for most hours in the day which they prefer. Each probosis goes at it, hammer and tong, so to speak, as they gather their much-sought nectar. Each season many will breed, lay eggs and die. But the magic they bring is worth the brief visit, and, possibly, because of their infrequent appearance, much more appreciated than if they were flying around every day...though, for me personally, I would never tire of the company of wall-to-wall butterflies in my garden.

Hoverfly on Inula Daisies

Competing for space on each flowerhead are the Hoverflies, Bumble Bees and Bees, as well as Wasps. They are no less welcome as each has a part to play in the web of life which keeps my garden organic and chemical-free and thus better for the environment. Every one is a pollinator, though most people are surprised when I tell them that applies to Wasps too, and that they are not simply here on earth to torment our picnics.

Small Bumble Bee on Teasel

Only today, I was reminded of the story, by Simon Barnes in the Times, of the importance of Wasps and how it is they who invented paper by chewing woodpulp, and how the Chinese cottoned on to that ...and the rest is history. In fact there would be no history, no Shakespeare, no poetry without the Wasps inventing paper. So, perhaps we should salute them and sing their praises, rather than destroy them with the newspapers which we read from, thanks to them.

Banded Shell Snail

I have said this many times before in my journal...but, I allow Snails and Slugs to roam freely in my garden. I found this little fellow with his broken shell crawling away for safety under the patio. They are the dustmen of the garden, feeding on the rotting plants, and, in turn, becoming food for Thrushes and other birds, and the colony of mature frogs in our two ponds. I know they can be naughty and eat new seedlings. But there are ways around that. I use coffee grinds and crushed eggshells to deter them and I grow many seeds in large pots with vaseline around the rim, which also hinders the Snails and Slugs from crawling into the pots. In that way, we live in harmony and they survive by eating spent leaves and rotting plants.

Blue Nigella, Love In A Mist

The Summer meadow I grew has continued to mature and grow, and grace the garden with much colour...reds, oranges and pinks of Poppies; blue, white and pink Cornflowers; blue and white Nigella; baby-pink Cosmos; inky-purple Cerinthe Major; several Sunflowers and hundreds of Nasturtiums. In the two videos I took this month, I have included more footage of the Summer meadow as it developed and matured.

Golden Barley In The Field Adjacent To Barleycorn

I leave you with this quote from Ecclesiastes 3 Verse 11.

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

xxxxxxx

The first video, called Fairy Magic At Barleycorn, August 2010, is of the Butterflies, Bumble Bees, Hoverflies and other pollinators which have paid us visits this month. I used Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade to accompany the dancing insects.

In the second video, called High Summer At Barleycorn, August 2010, I walked around Barleycorn at various times to give an overall impression of what is in bloom throughout August. Jay Ungar's The Ashokan Farewell is the accompaniment. ( I hope both will play continuously...if they pause, try hovering the mouse over Play. It works for me when they stick. Happy Viewing...Enjoy!)

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.
xxxxxxx

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!