More Woodpeckers

I was delighted to watch this male Great spotted woodpecker , feeding his chick on the lawn this evening .

Rosa canina

 

Moving swiftly on from cats .... my favourite rose flowering in the hedgerow .

This is what they really like !

I had been lazily topping up the bird bath dishes with a watering can....... the precious water sprinkled on the grass around......wasteful...I thought to myself .... I must be more careful !
I came indoors and stood at my kitchen window just thinking about things and what I must do next , up in the vegetable garden .. Why have I had to resow parsnips and leek seeds ....why do I keep finding my newly emerging sweet peas and tiny onion sets up rooted ?
Then this beautiful female woodpecker flew down in front of the kitchen window and began pulling up grubs out of the grass around the bird bath dishes ! So ..... I realised ! We haven,t had a proper heavy rainfall for ages , the ground is dry and hard . No wonder the birds are having such a difficult time finding food and are only able to peck and forage for food in the vegetable garden seed beds , that I keep watered .
All the more reason to put out water for the birds ! I have heard that House Martins and Swifts are also finding it hard to find moist earth and mud for their nest building and on a recent Springwatch tv show ....it was recommended that folk put out trays of wet earth / mud for them . well I dont get those birds here ...we do get swallows ...not sure if they use mud ? hmm ...maybe I,ll do this and see what comes .
Anyhow up in the veg garden I will have to cover the beds with some plastic mesh . The potato hawk is doing a great job keeping the pigeons off the young cabbage plants . The chicken wire is keeping the rabbits out .The bluetits are keeping the greenfly down . The crushed eggshells , sand and toads are keeping the slugs off ,the thrush enjoys a snail ot two . The visiting cat ? ........dont get me started !

Back in the garden today .

If I didn,t put peanuts out..... then I probably wouldn,t see my friends the Woodpeckers .... but I do wrestle with the thought that it isn,t really their natural food .

Music on the Mount 2011

Seef Saffah Dance Group . Performing at Music on the Mount 2011 . African and Middle Eastern Dance .
Elegant , classy , flawless .

Siamese Twins

Everything is looking so lush after the rain during the night . My Cornish hedge at the front gate is buzzing with bees and dancing butterflies . Wall flowers , roses , centranthus rubra valerian and shasta daisies ....but what really caught my eye today , was this delightful and beautiful Siamese-twin bloomed daisy !

Great spotted woodpecker

O.K. So I knew you wouldn,t believe me ! Here is my friend the Woodpecker. I haven,t been putting peanuts out so often ,due to the price now . ...but he is such a splendid character of a bird ....and I do love to see him .

Grandmother's Secrets

So , after all these chores in the garden ,not to mention two fun , but tough belly dance classes this week , I am going to take it easy this afternoon , put my feet up and read my book . " GRANDMOTHER'S SECRETS " " The Ancient Rituals and Healing Power of Belly Dancing " by ROSINA-FAWZIA AL-RAWI every student of the authentic art of belly dance should read this truely delightful book .

Preparing for French Beans

Time to stop buying bamboo canes and make my own plant supports and climbing structures . I have two Hazel bushes from which I lop out enough straight branches of a suitable size for this ...tidy them up a little bit ,not too much as the young bean shoots appreciate something to grab on to . One of the problems with bamboo is the stems are silky smooth , I will have to put on net to get my sweetpeas going .
These are old bamboo canes and very brittle .They can be very dangerous and sharp if they snap . I find all manner of objects to cover the tops of these , it could be so easy ,on bending down to pull up a weed and poke your eye .
So here is this years bean frame ,all ready to go .I had a very generous bag of seeds ,so have taken a chance and sown two at each station along the frame . I,ve sown some Blue Lake Climbing French Beans in the greenhouse and they are just beginning to hatch and by the time they are big enough ,we shall be well clear of any frosty weather .
I will still use the bamboo to hold the chickenwire to the ground around my veg beds ...I tried with sticks ,but couldn,t push them through the wire ,to keep the bunnies out . I think that the Hazel rods look far more attractive than the bamboo canes though .