Good start to the month, a really lovely warm Spring day. These miniature Tulips were tightly closed first thing this morning, a bit of warmth, plenty of sunshine & out they pop. They are no April Fool realising that they should enjoy this while they can, because Sunday we are forecast SNOW, let’s wait & see but we know it is going to get cold again. So we will enjoy the beauty while it lasts.
A follow up to yesterdays post before I put todays post up, these are those proud Tulips from yesterday, but taken first thing this morning. All flat & limp, why? Because our overnight temperature went down to MINUS 5C and was just above freezing when I went out for todays shot. No doubt they will recover today but we are forecast frost overnight nearly everyday next week.
Virtually every Easter card we have received has Daffodils on it, so as it is Good Friday I thought I would contribute to the collection. I would say that 50% of our Daffs are not out of bud yet, therefore we have plenty more colour to come. Those that are out are definitely adding to the great Spring colour the garden is showing. A great time of the year with new growth all around us.
Continuing the Easter theme, what would this time of the year be without lambs? Still a bit early for them up here but a few are appearing before the snow arrives. These are from the mixed farm up the hill from us, a very protective mother was giving me the look, as if to say you stay that side of the fence or look out. The weather is still absolutely wonderful for a bank holiday weekend, but they really are getting prepared for a good dumping of snow on Monday, so feel sorry for any new animal about to be born, or as this one is a few days old.
I have put most of my Easter Sunday sunrise shots on a separate blog, so have put this one on here, When learning (still learning) my early skills dividing a shot into thirds was an important thing to learn, unintentionally this shot shows that well. Trees in the foreground , clouds in the middle third & sunrise in the upper, well roughly anyway. The anticipation of that sunrise in such cold conditions was a show of patience for me. It was just under an hour since I had arrived at this spot, my fingers were nearly dropping off, I could see a lot more cloud on it’s way that might obscure the shot i wanted & I was hungry, as I had just jumped out of bed & went. But as you can see from the previous blog all turned out well & with the added bonus of the wildlife it was well worth carrying out my normal Easter Sunday enjoyable task.
I think by now you all know that I am no Monty Don when it comes to plants in the garden, I can mow lawns, photograph any plant you want photographing & that’s about it. So as neither the wife or my encyclopaedia knowledge of plants knew what the one above is called , we resorted to the garden books to find out for ourselves. Turns out it is called a Hacquetia epipactis & has the rare distinction of being the only species in it’s genus. The books say it thrives in rich, moist soil in shade or semi shade, well it has thrived for 18 years here in our garden providing ground cover in a semi shaded area. Though not in rich soil, but very rocky free draining soil, so we have proved the books wrong. One thing that the books did get right it is a hardy little plant, even today when the temperature at midday is still below freezing & flurries of snow it is looking terrific.
I think I have done really well not to include a bird so far this month, have looked through previous posts and was surprised that probably the most common bird in our garden, a Blue Tit has not been included in this year of photographs.. This one was taken through the kitchen window (mainly because there was no way I was going out in this weather) and this one was on its way to the feeders outside the window. We deliberately left the stumps of the conifer knowing it was an ideal perch for the feeders. This is the third day of snow we have had though the wind is not as strong, but the bird activity in the garden has increased as they need to fuel up for the cold nights.
There are a few birds that come into the garden that I would prefer to be without, two regular visitors in that category are Sparrow Hawk for taking to many of my little birds and Pigeon that eats far to much food in one session this time taking food away from my little birds. But the bird above, who itself eats a fair bit of food, is always welcome to enter my bird restaurant. It is , as you can see around it’s neck, a Collar Dove.
A beautiful bird in so many ways, it is plain but very elegant, even regal in appearance. When it lands it is as gentle as only a loose feather was landing, on taking off a noisy flap of the wings like a royal wave and it’s away. That smiling beak and big eye just wants you to keep it as a pet. As you can read I am very fond of these birds & they are welcome in my garden anytime.
Out for a walk today, with a fresh Westerly wind in our faces, have come home with rosy cheeks (facial ones). This time of the year allows you to see the new growth starting to come through in the hedgerow, but also some of last years nest builds, it shows me how clever some birds are in building. If you think of the weather we have had this last winter with such strong winds, how on earth did this nest manage to stay so intact? Not sure what small bird would have built this one, Dunnock maybe, but just look at the materials used in it’s construction, moss, lichen, grass even a strand of plastic. Makes you think why would birds put so much effort into building new nests each year, just use some of the skills you have in building it to do a bit of DIY and it is already for you to use again. I bet later on in the summer when the hedge has grown you will not be able to see this one even though it was just a few yards from the road. A work of art in its natural surroundings. Love it.
Another unusual shot from me, this time it is one of the main reasons I have a good relationship with Robins, Wrens, Blackbirds & all different members of the Tit family. They all love Mealworms especially my new found friend the Wren, this morning it heard me putting my shoes on, sat on the door handle & as I opened it it flew off & followed me to my workshop where I keep my mealworms. My wife was watching from the bedroom window & apparently as I went through the door into the workshop for a brief moment it followed me in, As soon as I turned round with my tin to replenish the feeders it was sitting on the flower tub waiting to be fed.
I took this shot as I have just had my latest supply of the Mealworms delivered a kilo of mini worms, which when I have fed them up, will be twice this size, say 1/2 inch long by then up to well over an inch. They do not take much feeding, wholemeal bran or porridge plus some banana skins& sliced cucumber for them to get their moisture from. I am hoping as the weather warms up that some of them by then will change & eventually have some early beetles to breed my own stock for next winter, though at £17 a kilo they are good value for money anyway. A kilo will normally last me 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how cold the weather is, which in turn relates to how hungry the birds are. Though as I am fairly new to this I am not sure how much will be taken to feed the next generation as they are born, would be great seeing the newly fledged queuing up by the feeders while the parents help themselves. The birds have started pairing up & some are nest building so fun times ahead.
What a lovely sight to see the field over the Glen being ploughed. In the past it has always been ploughed up & down as you can see from the tracks in the light section not yet dug. Not sure what crop will go on the field but last year it was just silage & then in the Autumn it was all killed of (hence the beige colour) therefore now ready for ploughing.
I always wonder how the gulls know that this is being dug, as no sooner had he /she started the tractor up the gulls were there. You most probably cannot see them on this shot, but when I zoomed in on the original I suppose there was 40 to50 present. At least today the weather has been dry & no snow showers, the first time for several days even with the sun out it at 1130am not gone above 1C yet, as it was minus 7C in the night.
One advantage of these clear nights is that living with no street lights we have a magnificent panorama of stars each night, just wish I could remember which group are which.
Following on from yesterdays shot, the ploughman (I can now confirm it was a man) did not quite finish the field of, so though it is a Sunday came back today to complete the job. It got me thinking maybe he would like a A4 copy of the photo, so printed it off & drove up to the field, just as he was finishing it & gave him the photo, he was well chuffed & loved it. I had parked in this field entrance opposite side of the road to the ploughed field & thought it might be good to take a shot back to our place. I had my landscape lens on (10-18 if your interested) rather than the 150-600 from the previous shot so not so easy to spot our house as not zoomed in. But if you look at the dark conifer in the centre of the shot, the tip of that tree on the left hand side is where it is. A decent enough day plenty of sunshine but still getting very cold nights.
Went for a walk up the road into the hills & on my way back this Stoat appeared on the road in front of me, I think it knew I was there so it just ran across the road and disappeared into the undergrowth. Had one in the garden one winter in it’s white coat, plus had one (unknown to us) rear babes under our summerhouse, it was only when we decided to tidy up at the rear of the summerhouse that it decided to move all it’s babies into a nearby woods that we saw him carrying them one at a time.
The walk today was stunning, cold, but bright sunshine and so much to see. So much in fact I will write a separate blog today with all the wildlife on it, plus the views. Will not include the Stoat but save that for here when I publish on the 15th.
This is not a very attractive shot, but this is what is left of our first batch of frogspawn, the poor frogs all came together and we were all excited when this huge heap of spawn appeared. Then to follow the night temperatures after that you will realise why it has started to rot & collect algae. -5C followed by -8,-8 -8-9 and last night (getting better-5C). Therefore every day when we got up the pond was frozen, but by midday the sun had melted the ice, so the poor spawn (well at least the top layer) has been frozen also and obviously has not survived. I am not going to disturb it as the layers below might have come through it with the upper level insulating it, but I am not holding out much hope. Maybe, just maybe we may get another spawning after this weather goes away and we warm up a bit, I can but hope.
Added bonus today, around the end of our evening meal, the wife noticed a couple of Hares in the field, on putting the binoculars on them noticed one was still in it’s white winter coat so dashed for the camera. The field has a dip in it so managed to get within about 150yards of the white one before it saw me & that distance rapidly became 200 yards. Zoomed in got this one shot of any good after cropping it to give you this close up. Then spotted two further hares in the next field another 50yards on, so got those as well. The white one eventually joined them but they then decided to run off so a brief encounter but worth the effort so close after a full meal.
Todays plant is a Trillion or common name of a Wood Lily, as you can see it gets it’s name from the fact that it has three leaves and when the terrific deep red flower open , that has three petals also. Even in Scotland this is considered a very hardy plant and if you look at the top leaf you can see it has curled up slightly due to frost damage. Looking at the base of the plant you can see further stems coming through in fact we have had the plant five years and after the first year we have a new stem each year, so we were well pleased that the fourth stem was produced this year. The plant thrives in good, well drained soil in the shade, which is exactly where it is at present, we hope the ryzones that produce the plants will continue to spread and we can have a magnificent display.
We saw and purchased the original plant from Clunie Gardens outside Aberfeldy where the woodland is full of the most wonderful show of them and where along with it’s Megonopsis it has world fame. To see a huge display of these plants in such natural grounds is a sight to behold.
Here we are the middle of April and the farmer is still having to supplementary feed the sheep, normally by now the grass would have grown sufficiently for the sheep and lambs to be feeding on it with no extra help, but this extremely cold start to the month has meant that growth has been delayed. It’s okay for me I do not have to cut the lawn so early but it must be costing the farmers up here so much more this year, is this what global warming is going to do to our climate and methods of producing food? What I like about the shepherd’s method is he lays out the food in a straight line and then goes back along the line (as he is in this shot) to check the mums and babes.