Yes folks it is May already & even with temperatures below zero most nights (my full moon theory once again) things are starting to move in the garden. I am no expert on gardening beyond mowing the lawn & cutting things down, but I have noticed & always have noticed changes in the garden. So what I decided to do in this lockdown is try & document as many different changes that I, the unobservant one, can notice. Most of the Spring Bulbs are still with us especially the Daffodils which are enjoying a good long season, Tulips have never been that successful up here, but what few we have, have gone over. Bluebells are on their way & as we normally have a great show of them I shall include them in a future blog. But what I want to concentrate on today is the growth of some shrubs etc. which shows Summer is on its way.
These shots are very experimental for me as I have used my very long, heavy telephoto lens to take close up shots (for those into photography my Sigma 150-600 C) I have used the lens before for things like the butterflies I showed you, where if you get to close they just fly away, on this occasion though it was just static things & a case of working out just how close I could get without the subject getting to out of focus, I hope I have achieved that though some are very slightly out of focus or “soft”.
Would love your comments on the idea after you have had a gander at the shots
Started with a couple of simple shots of one of the many Silver Birch in the garden, I just love the brightness of the sun shining through & on the leaves. For those observant enough you will notice on the second one I even capture a fly going towards the leaf, totally unintentional & as you will see from some other shots this has happened on a few of the them also.
A young Rowan tree just starting to sprout, again just loved the sun penetrating the outer part of the leaf. A saying up here (according to the wife’s Aunt) is that if you remove a Rowan from your garden you will get bad luck. We have removed so many, because they just grow throughout the garden, we must be the most unlucky couple in the whole of Scotland.
Another Rowan, this time not so advanced but once again there was no way I saw the fly sitting on the top bud, just shear skill of course.
The above to shots are of an Azalea, even in this state of the flower just about to unfold the scant coming off of it is wonderful. We are very fortunate that the previous owners planted a whole bunch of different ones down one side of the garden & not only is the flower display wonderful that scent is breathtaking, it just fills the whole area with wonderful perfume. Though these shrubs are getting old now & are covered in Lichen, we have the next generation of Azaleas growing all around them, so we should be able to enjoy them for years to come.
A not so popular member of that family (I presume they are any way?) is the Rhododendron, my wildlife expert son hates them as they have taken over many areas of the reserves he manages. But we have just the one big one that has spectacular flowers on & as you can see from this shot of one of it’s many buds they a fairly large & sweet smelling.
A Pieris, I love the way that the new growth is always a shade of red on this particular plant, a very hardy little plant at present that survives the harshest of our winters & gives us this great burst of colour.
Roses do not seem to like our soil much & the only two we have really successfully grown are climbers of which this is one, once again through the wonderful eye I have for such things ( 🙂 ) I have included a insect, this time a Greenfly, just to remind us time to get the spray gun out.
Next a completely different subject that I thought might be of interest to you all.
Every evening the sheep in the field in front of us make they’re way up to this the highest point in the field, where they eventually all lay down & sleep. On asking a shepherd why this was I was told because the higher you go the less midges & pest insects there are , which is really clever of them. In the first shot I took the picture showing a smaller bunch & how they settle down. As you can see they are sheep with no lambs, but virtually every year we get one naughty lady who must go off & find herself a fella, this year is no exception, can you see the one lamb that was born in our field?