It looks like summer!
Jul. 16th, 2021 11:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supermouseThere used to be magpies living around this house and garden and now suddenly there aren't. Zero magie presence. Sexy Woodpigeon is still loud and proud, and the swifts? Swallows? House martens? are shrieking away, although in very small numbers.
The fuchsia is in full flower, if about half the usual growth, and has a few bees, as does the new and thriving colony of purple toadflax, which wasn't there last year. We think the neighbour at the back put it in and it crawled under the fence and to a happier south-facing top-of-a-brick-wall situation.
The apple tree behind us has visible frost damage still. Most of the dead, brown parts of our garden have been cut away or are overgrown. The bramble is thriving and has just now been cut back down again.
No wasps this year. The ones we did have once were bizarrely polite, which was why they didn't get exterminated, and took a long, complex route straight up through plants rather than out into the parts of the garden we used. Wasps are useful predators, just not inside or actually on the house or where people walk.
No butterflies. Not a single one. The buddleiah we cut down to a quarter of its size is now the same size it was last year and in bloom. No butterflies have turned up at all. There are a few bees around and a bumblebee.
The strawberries are done. Not as many fruit as usual. I'll root some runners if I remember, which is a big 'if'. The brambles are mid-flower and starting to set fruit. Usually they're ripe about mid-August through to mid-September.
The sparrows are back, hiding in the giant buddleiah, and showing just how important hedge cover is to them. Food was there, but until the cover was too, they didn't hang about. I keep checking they really are house sparrows and not hedge sparrows...
Everything wants mealworms. White suet gets eaten. Pink suet with added calcium is a last resort. Sparrows have worked out when they can shout for food, so I know when they're out, and recently they're eating a lot more than a few weeks ago.
Other than the sparrows, wood pigeon, swifts(?) and a blackbird, I'm not seeing any birds around. No goldfinches, thrushes, starlings, bluetits or great tits. One by one there are fewer species around.
No frogs sighted so far. No tadpoles again. It's been years since we had any.
The potatoes are really happy.
I'm still very much grieving, but life has to go on. Now and then I just have to stop and very very sad for a while. It's mostly about there being something I'd love to tell him the next time we talk and then of course I can't.
The situation in Germany (and Belgium and .nl) look absolutely dire. All the chickens are coming home to roost.
My inbox is full of plant and garden details, I love it! I hope you're all doing okay!
The fuchsia is in full flower, if about half the usual growth, and has a few bees, as does the new and thriving colony of purple toadflax, which wasn't there last year. We think the neighbour at the back put it in and it crawled under the fence and to a happier south-facing top-of-a-brick-wall situation.
The apple tree behind us has visible frost damage still. Most of the dead, brown parts of our garden have been cut away or are overgrown. The bramble is thriving and has just now been cut back down again.
No wasps this year. The ones we did have once were bizarrely polite, which was why they didn't get exterminated, and took a long, complex route straight up through plants rather than out into the parts of the garden we used. Wasps are useful predators, just not inside or actually on the house or where people walk.
No butterflies. Not a single one. The buddleiah we cut down to a quarter of its size is now the same size it was last year and in bloom. No butterflies have turned up at all. There are a few bees around and a bumblebee.
The strawberries are done. Not as many fruit as usual. I'll root some runners if I remember, which is a big 'if'. The brambles are mid-flower and starting to set fruit. Usually they're ripe about mid-August through to mid-September.
The sparrows are back, hiding in the giant buddleiah, and showing just how important hedge cover is to them. Food was there, but until the cover was too, they didn't hang about. I keep checking they really are house sparrows and not hedge sparrows...
Everything wants mealworms. White suet gets eaten. Pink suet with added calcium is a last resort. Sparrows have worked out when they can shout for food, so I know when they're out, and recently they're eating a lot more than a few weeks ago.
Other than the sparrows, wood pigeon, swifts(?) and a blackbird, I'm not seeing any birds around. No goldfinches, thrushes, starlings, bluetits or great tits. One by one there are fewer species around.
No frogs sighted so far. No tadpoles again. It's been years since we had any.
The potatoes are really happy.
I'm still very much grieving, but life has to go on. Now and then I just have to stop and very very sad for a while. It's mostly about there being something I'd love to tell him the next time we talk and then of course I can't.
The situation in Germany (and Belgium and .nl) look absolutely dire. All the chickens are coming home to roost.
My inbox is full of plant and garden details, I love it! I hope you're all doing okay!
no subject
Date: 2021-07-17 06:22 am (UTC)I have heard others in the UK express concern about missing birds. Is this a trend or a new anomaly?
no subject
Date: 2021-07-17 09:46 pm (UTC)I've had the windows open for hours in darkness and nothing's tried to get in, which is weird. I mean, we have bats and swifts, the air can't be completely dead.