🌿☀️ Ostara Song 🌑🌿

 

New Dovecot 🕊️

                       Blue Tit mumma feeding her chicks .

   Anyone who knows me , knows how much  I enjoy to see our local wildlife .

Gold Finch                          

And I know that so many of us in the U.K. love to feed and watch our wild birds .

 I'm not 100% sure but I think this is a female Siskin finch .( let me know in the comments )

I have my bird feeders hanging in front of my kitchen window so I can watch them while I do the washing up .

I think this one is the male Siskin finch .

I love my Squirrels too ..they do make me laugh !

               Mrs Blackbird in my kitchen , helping herself to a grape . 

 Handsome Green Woodpecker  looking for grubs , on the bank opposite my kitchen window . I managed to sneak outside and take lots of pics quite close up . 

 He often comes and takes grubs out of the lawn .

 Yep , he's a regular visitor . 💚

The Bullfinch who doesn't come to my garden very often . And causes much scrabbling for my camera when he does !  ❤️

                         We used to have this dovecot style nesting box  .

We bought it at the boot fair in Truro years ago . I don't think the boot fair is there anymore . It used to be held in the fields in front of the farmers market ,  near to where Hobbycraft is now .

 We loved going to this boot fair and had many good finds and plants there . 

  It had such a nice friendly atmosphere too . 

Our children came too and we'd all go home with some treasure or in my case plants ! 

I was delighted to spot this lovely old bird house /dovecot .

 We had it for a quite a few years  , gave it a coat of paint every now and then . 

It was well used by the Blue tits . Many a big family of Blue tit chicks were raised in there !

Sadly it was smashed down during the winter storms . I still have the main part of it , but the bottom of it is gone and too tricky to be repaired .  Heartbroken  . I was thinking about putting it into the greenhouse with plants growing through it or I might have a go at mending it somehow .

I'll do something with it .....  🤔

Anyway to cut a very long story short .

Ricardo and my daughter surprised me with a new one ! 🤩 

    And yesterday it was finally fixed up by two very strong and clever men . 

One heck of a task , because it was a very heavy and awkward shape to have hauled up this steep and slippery bank and needed to be fixed into the ground properly and really well  .

 They have done a great and very professional job of it !   

                           I am just so thankful and thrilled to bits with it !   ❤️🕊️🌿

The baby fledgling Blue Tit I rescued . He didn't quite make it on his first take off . But I carefully put him back up on the tree here and his next go was a success ! 🩵

          Male Woodpecker , the most handsome one of all !  🖤           

                         Collared Dove one of a pair that occasionally visits .

                         

                               All for today folks ! Have a great weekend !

                                                                   🌿☀️🌿         

                                              

Another Beautiful Morning ! ☀️

 

                    Fixed up the teepee for my Sweet-Peas and Black-Eyed Suzies .

        ..... I am doing nothing else today .....except some roast potatoes to go with my cheese flan.

                   Gonna sit in the summerhouse and do my embroidery ! 

                                               🌿☀️🌿

Beautiful Morning !

 

                          Up and out into the garden 7am . Wow ! The Sun !

                       Filled that wheelbarrow with weeds .

Spread the two year old woodchip mulch .

 

I'm trying hard to replenish the good earth after months of storms and relentless rain .

I feel I can never make enough of this  .

I need to move some of these Echiums while they are still small and replant them in other locations in the garden .

Camelia "Water Lily " Is in full bloom now .  So lovely !

Took off a couple more leaves of wind damaged Chamaerops . Looks much better now . 

Completely forgot about breakfast ! 

........but when I came in , I made up for that by cooking enough for the next few days .

And half of the flan will be going over to my daughter  and also boiled enough potatoes for mash today and roast potatoes tomorrow . Ricardo would have roast potatoes everyday if he could !

Anyway ,

 This week I have splurged out on a bag of Shallots .

And got them planted out straight away  ...in the rain .

Put grids over them while they are getting their roots down .

I took up the rest of my Leeks . We've eaten the best of them . 

These are a bit small but we will use them . These are L. Musselbroro 

 I have already sown L.Bleu de Solaise and L. Jaune de Poitou up in the shed . 

 Did a bit more weeding  and a gentle bit of digging  . I have Kale seedlings waiting in the shed to go in here . 

I will throw down some chicken pellets to give the good earth a little boost .

                                     🌿Beautiful moss 🌿

A reduced pot of Parsley from the supermarket made me happy .

I split it up and planted them all out .

They were not happy about it !    But I think they'll pick up in a few days ! Fingers crossed 😄

I need to give the Chives some better protection , Something 🐰 has been enjoying nibbles ! 🌿

Brought more wood in and got  the fire going . It is cold this evening with the clear skies .

Pleased with the new fencing , I have to sew on some windbreak mesh . What is that spooky little green light thing ? 🟢  Fairies ....Cornish Piskies ? 

  ☀️  It's going to be lovely again tomorrow .....the nice checkout assistant in Sainsburys said so ! ☀️

                            

                                      Love and Peace  🤍🕊️              

                                             

Those Darned Sciarid Compost Flies !

 

                        Sweet Daffodils in my garden right now . 

Meanwhile in the shed ......

I'd been noticing one or two of those pesky compost flies . And ordered a box of these yellow sticky fruit fly traps things from Amazon £3.49

                   They sent them out fast ! Very impressed !

There is no way any other insects such as butterflies or bees can get in to the shed , so only these sciarid flies will be caught .

  🪰🪰Sciarid flies lay their eggs in damp compost . The eggs hatch maggots 🐛🐛🐛. The maggots eat soft plant tissue including my seedlings tender roots and shoots . 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

I do not want them in my plant pots !  

Easy to use . Just peel off both sides and push it into the pots .  They are wickedly sticky !

                 Hopefully I have done this in good time .

                                            ☀️🌦️🌧️🌈

Sunshine and showers again ! 🌦️🌿

 

Wednesday , the Sun came out and shone pretty much all day . Glorious warm sunshine !

I fix up my henry hoover to a very long extension wire and gave the Summerhouse a good clean .

                                                                    🕸️🕸️🕷️

It was all going so well , that is until I went to move out this huge Aloe ferox .

  I hadn't watered it all through the winter months ,so it was quite light , but very spiky and awkward to carry out . I was also worried incase anything might come crawling or running out of the pot . So I lifted it carefully and quickly lifted it out on to the summerhouse deck trying not to look incase a spider should come out !

  As I passed through the door I heard a loud smashing sound  , I couldn't stop as I was still carrying it out . 

I thought it must be the lovely Chinese plant pot my friend had given me !  😭  

One "Arm" of the spiky Aloe had knocked down the pot as I came out .

I rushed back in ...the lovely Chinese pot was on the floor and when I picked it up I could see it was perfectly fine ...... no cracks or chips .......

....but the table it had fallen through was smashed to pieces ! 

My husband's Great Aunty Winnie's conservatory coffee table .....we're talking 1920's ! 

It was such thick glass too , at least a quarter of an inch thick , I really don't understand how the Chinese pot didn't get broken too ? !

Oh misery ! How I hate picking up smashed glass !  Ugh !

I picked up the worst of it . The table , we'll take it to the tip tomorrow ......sigh ....

 I feel terrible about it ....  😢 ( but so glad the Chinese pot was o.k. phew! )

Husband was o.k. about it . We still have the footstool that went with the bamboo conservatory furniture . The chairs went a long time ago . I recovered the footstool myself . I think Great Aunt Winnie would be happy that we'd kept her furniture for as long as we have  .

Still feeling fed up .  

Then 

The postman came and brought packages !   😃

I'd ordered a cutting of a plant .🌿

It has arrived !  🤩   Look how beautifully it has been packed ! 

And here it is !  Tradescantia pallida "Kartuz Giant "  and perfect !

 This is not the usual purple one that you often see . This one has really big leaves !

I used to have it , but lost it while we were having the new greenhouse built . All my plants were moved all over the place ! 

This was a nice calming job to do  .

Plants are good for you ! Really ! The best kind of therapy is getting your hands into the good earth !

And there she is all potted up with lots of new friends  😃🌿

         Feeling a much better now , I gathered up my sewing things ......

  ........and went and spent the rest of the day sitting in the warmth of the sunshine .....

............doing my embroidery . 

   I have just about come to the end of stitching my Angel . I am just waiting for the right sized piece of drift wood to be washed up on the beach , which she will be tacked on to  .

I'm now working on a "Pocket Oratory " but more on that on my "Cornish Needlework Basket " blog .

Friday  -    

It has turned cold again , icy cold showers , hail . I gathered kindling for the fire .

                Got the fire going .

                 Very gloomy weather again ,

             Made up paper fire twisties  , to start the fire with .

            I need more kindling than this for the next few days ! 

                       Cornish Pisky / Jack O'Lantern 

              Hope you are all o.k. Thinking of you . Peace and Love  🕊️💚🤍

                                        🌧️🌧️🌦️🌧️🌧️