Second half of the month is underway and the weather is still good, though we would normally be looking forward to different events happening in the village to attract the tourist, everything has been cancelled, so nothing much new to show you. Maybe the August events will go ahead, I am sure the International Horse Show is so we shall see.
One of the highlights in the garden is to see if an Aaron’s Rod has come up in the garden from last years seed and sure enough this year we actually have two growing. This one is more in the sun and also sheltered from the wind, so has come out way before the other one. Next thing is to see how tall they grow, other years the single ones have grown to well over six foot and tower above anything else in the flower bed, these are standing about five foot at present, with plenty of flower to come out still.
Came across a sight I have never seen before while out on a walk, this small snail apparently resting in a purposely constructed dead leaf. A friend suggested that it maybe the snail constructed it;s own hammock on such a hot day. Shall have to go back there and see if it is still in there, plus if it is alive?
The monthly forum competition that I enter has a theme of colour this month and this is going to be my entry. The Campanula’s in this bed are stunning this year and add a lot of colour to the garden.
Another shrub throughout the garden that adds that bit of colour are the Hypericums. Though the above looks like it has a good shower of rain on it, no such luck, these water droplets are from an early morning visit by me with the hosepipe as the garden is beginning to wilt in this heat, actually reached 29C yesterday, but sometime in the night dropped to a mere 6C, must be getting close to a full moon (my long held belief that full moon produces the worst weather). Having seen this shot I am debating which shot of the two above to enter in the monthly forum as I think this is colourful.
This is an annual plant that we love having in our garden and grows up a conifer outside my bedroom window, a friend did tell me what it is called and how envious he was that we had it, but I have forgotten it’s name. Each year it oroduces more shoots and winds it’s way up through the conifer, sometimes we do not even notice the new stems until the flowers are out, but is a prize plant for us both.
We had a heavy dew this morning in these continuing hot days and (for us anyway) relatively cooler nights, from being up to nearly 30C down to single figures most nights. This of course makes all those many spider webs that you would not normally see become very visible and affect that I thing is very jewel like. First one is on a conifer that must have had at least 20n webs on it and the second two were on heathers lower down. You are fortunate that I have only put three shots up for today as I have taken loads of others and could really bore you.
The wife was doing her annual paint of garden sheds today and got to close to a wasp’s nest, as this was an area we use frequently and if they swarmed the way they did around her it could be fairly dangerous as I am very allergic to wasp and bee stings. So I am afraid to say that it had to go, and once the wasps had left the area after a dusting, I knocked it down. Now if none of you are familiar with the structure of a nest it is incredible, as you can see it is honeycombed shaped and individual cells for each growing grub. The top layer had already hatched and the next layer on the lower ones not hatched you can see the dark face of the wasp peeping through the grub. The white silk like covering is the smaller grubs and when they develop fully they break through that membrane ready to crawl out when fully formed. As much as I have to watch getting stung , they are fascinating creatures and their nests are a wonderful architectural delight.
Just above the field in front of us is this magnificent Oak tree, an unusual sight as normally all my shots surrounding us are of conifers, so this is a real exception. During most late Springs and early Summer this tree has been the home of a pair of Buzzards that nest and in all but one of the recent years has reared young here. Judging from the young ones calls for food, this year they have only reared one chick. I think I have seen it out once with a parent so it is fledged but seems to be reluctant to leave the nest and learn some flying skills. Out in the garden today I heard it giving out it’s usual call for food and one of the adults did appear and I managed to catch it circling above the tree, I presume trying to entice the youngster out from the coolness of the tree. No luck so it just flew off with the child screaming “feed me”.
P.S. I know I have shown you a Buzzard recently, but have not broken my different shot everyday rule as I have not shown you the Oak tree in any detail.
Throughout the village the Community Council have commissioned flower arrangements to be placed. In total there are 5 on the main road and are a pleasing sight to visitors and locals alike, they all share the same theme with wheelbarrows and pots and I for one are so pleased that they do not either get vandalised or stolen. This display is between the entrance to the castle and the caravan park.
In the past I have shown you shots of the Chinese calligraphy tree, a dead stump that looks like a Chinese letter. Well an encouraging sign for me after this horrid lockdown that even out of something as old as this stump, new life can emerge, as this Rowan growing on a dead piece of Silver Birch demonstrates.
Set the moth trap up and had some interesting species that i had not seen before in it, like a Burnish Brass, Beautiful Golden Y, a Golden Twin Spot and this beauty a Swallow tailed Moth, not to be confused with it’s butterfly of the same name. To me it just looked like a Chinese kite , so delicate and paper thin.
Not the best of shots as I had the wrong lens on the camera, but knew the sheep would soon be through the gate and into the farm yard, so had to take a quick snatch shot of this gathering. Cannot count them all as I might fall asleep in doing so, but, I reckon there was at least 300 sheep in this flock. They were sheared about a month ago so I am presuming they were being gathered for dipping or injecting, would think it was to many for a sale, but whatever the reason it was a wonderful sight to see the man on the quad and three dogs gather them all in to go through that gateway in the trees.
Today was also a sad day as we had the funeral of our lovely neighbour Kyle. A wonderful man so kind and thoughtful, although he has been ill for sometime he will be sadly missed by the whole village.
It is confession time, for the very first time in this challenge I have set myself, today I was just getting in bed when I realised that I had not taken a shot for the day. As it was gone eleven P.M. I didn’t feel much like going outside so just put on my dressing gown, gathered my camera with the correct lens on and wandered around the house looking for something to photograph. Saw this plant that a neighbour had given us and thought “colourful, worth taking a shot of, though a bit shiny”. It is so wax like but it is real and those bracks have grown out of it like a cactus, but it seems to be thriving in our house. No idea what it is called but it does add some colour to that corner of the window ledge.
Earlier in this blog I showed you the display of Campanulas we have in the garden, this is the wild version of them the Scottish Harebells, Many fields on the surrounding hillsides have these growing in abundance and this is a patch in the garden where the wife has nurtured them and spread their seeds annually to get this wonderful display, which is beginning to spread to other slopes in the garden.
When going through the village many people drive past this impressive entrance to Lude Estate just to get to Blair Castle, Though I have shown you the gates at the entrance to the castle, I do not feel they are as good as this entrance, which not many pay much attention to. Beyond the left hand buttress is a lodge that is occupied and I for one can imagine a servant of past lairds living there and having to lock some gates each evening to keep the riff raff out.
Well that is another month ticked off, I wonder what next month will bring for me to photograph?