Spring in the air........

The sun was shining today..... it was, I saw it from my window!  So I decided I'd take the opportunity to get out in the garden and get something done.  It was lovely and mild with a definite hint of Spring in the air.

At the back of the garden, there's a lovely little corner where we think the wrens take shelter and probably nest.  On one side is a leylandii hedge with ivy growing underneath, and on the back fence there's Winter jasmine.  I planted some wild purple foxgloves at the back, underplanted with wild strawberries, both of which I had grown from seed.  We've placed the arch nearby and I'm training one of the clematis over it...... as I was tidying it up today, I saw a nest within it's branches.  I saw a second nest, again in a clematis, in another part of the garden.  I hope the birds continue to make their homes here even though we've moved in, as the house had been empty for quite a long time.  On the back fence, there's a honeysuckle and the leaf buds are making an appearance....... oh, what delights Summer holds!

Having had such a good day in the garden set me off dreaming about the features I would like to have.......

greenhouse by Gabriel Ash

This is my dream greenhouse, just the right size for our garden, with matching coldframes... ideal.

How about this pond, fed by running water and adorned with gorgeous water lilies.  Oh.... Bob, Charlie and Benji would have such fun plodging through a pond like this!

  

Next on my list would be a romantic ruin ...... somewhere to while away the hours and forget where I am - forget which century I'm in......

  

Somewhere in my garden there would be a grotto, dark and damp with lots of lush ferns growing all around.

 

...... and when I've had enough of lingering underground, I would wander through the wildflower meadow with the butterflies and bees. 

Methinks I will have to scale things down somewhat!

In the attic.....

 Artwork by Mark Sach ~ go here to see more of his work

 
Shortly after moving into our new house, we could hear noises coming from above the bedroom..... like scratching.   The most activity occurs very early in the morning, but I hear it at other times too.  At first I could only guess as to what was making the noises.  Rats? Squirrels?  One weekend, I treated myself to a lie-in, book in hand and cup of tea on the bedside table that I'd made  asked hubby to make me.  As I was reading, I kept noticing birds flying to and fro outside the bedroom window - some were perched on the telephone lines and others were flying to and from our roof.  They were Starlings and I wondered if they were our mystery lodgers.  It was confirmed that they were when hubby saw one go in one of the air vent tiles on the roof.  They're very posh Starlings as we had the attic insulated last week, so you could say they're living in a giant carpeted nestbox.  We don't mind them lodging in our attic, in fact they were no doubt here before we were...... but I'm wondering just how early they'll wake us up in the mornings when Spring arrives!

Whooooohooooooo, I feel good!

We had a dry day today and I spent from 1 o'clock until dusk out in the garden, yay!  I dug over the part that gets flooded (read about that here) and found that there were paving slabs underneath the soil with just gravel thrown on top.  I know that next-doors pipes will still cause problems until they are fixed, but at least with the removal of all the submerged slabs, the water will have somewhere to go and it mightn't be so bad, fingers crossed.  It was hard and heavy work, but I feel all the better for it and so glad that a start has been made.  It's time to stop feeling sorry for myself and just get on with it.

I also managed to tidy up a bit - when we moved in we had so much to do that the plants in pots were just littered around the garden.  I've retrieved the ones that haven't been squashed to death by Big Foot Benji and put them in an orderly fashion, somewhere out of his reach .... I hope.

Big Foot Benji (in our previous garden)

My next job is to prune the shrubs and climbers on the fences before the new Spring growth appears.  The garden may look like a disaster area just now, but I'm happy to see that there are quite a lot of good shrubs already here, ones that I would have chosen myself, such as pyracantha, buddleia and winter jasmine, etc. 

It's been such an enjoyable day and the icing on the cake was looking up to see some long-tailed tits feeding on the fat balls I'd hung out.  I also saw one of the wrens (hubby's seen two in the garden), bobbing about in amongst the shrubs, a blackbird winked at me from the fence (honest, it did!) and a collared dove sat atop next-door's roof calling to its mate, "Oi, it's Lesley.... we've found her, the grubs over here."

Illustration by Annette Abolins ~ to see more of her work, go here.

I'm back to being a happy gardener..... bring on the Spring! :D

Fungi, Tiny nests and Sheep!

At last I have been able to photograph something in the garden!  I'm hoping someone can identify this fungi.  It's growing about a foot's distance from the hedge.

Below is a closer image of it.  It's sort of ruffled and the edges are laced with white.

This is another fungi (pictured below), growing on a tree stump in the garden.  Does anyone know what it is?  It looks quite disgusting - like some form of excrement!  I hope neither of these fungi are poisonous because of our dogs.

Charlotte (daughter) and I went out for a walk today - we even got the old man to come too!  The picture below shows a tiny nest - there were three of them within yards of each other.  I wish my photo' could show just how tiny they were.  At a guess, I'd say they were about four inches in diameter and they were built mostly with sheep's wool. :D  Does anyone know which bird might have built these perfect little nests?

Could these be the very sheep that provided the building materials for the above abode?  They were in a nearby field.  I love the ones to the left, with the white faces. :)  This is between Oakenshaw and Brancepeth.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you lots of health and happiness for 2011.