Creeping towards autumn

 I know it's still July, so essentially still the middle of summer, but it feels almost autumnal at the moment. It's chilly (I've put a cardigan on today), raining heavily and getting quite windy. The blackberries have started to appear in the hedges down the lane and in our garden, although they are still very small and green, as are the berries on the hawthorn and rowan. 

I'm not complaining about this at all, we had a heatwave a couple of weeks ago, and that was more than enough summer weather for me! Autumn is definitely my favourite season. I've vaguely started my autumn preparations...ordered some firewood (for delivery in September) in case it gets cold suddenly, making sure everyone in the house has suitable clothing and footwear for cooler, wetter weather etc. This is possibly just because I get a bit over-enthusiastic about being organised, or because I get over-excited about autumn generally.

I'm almost ceratin that we will get more hot weather over the next month or so, and I will complain about summer lasting too long, being too hot and humid etc. But at the moment I am enjoying the slow, subtle hints that autumn is coming.

Jackdaws

I may have mentioned before that we have jackdaws living/nesting on the roof, they have been here since we moved in. A few weeks ago, I had the very upsetting experience of finding a dead one in the garden. Well, actually I found it in a bin in the garden. The bin was otherwise empty (we don't use it for anything), there was no lid on it. Why would a bird go into an empty bin? And why wouldn't it it just fly out? Did it go in there to die in peace, away from everything else? Anyway, it was horrible. I cried about it for hours, not even sure why it upset me so much, but it did.

 Since then, one jackdaw has finally ventured into our garden, occasionally. It either sits on the roof of the workshop, or sometimes actually comes to the bird feeder and has some food. It never stays for very long. Now, this maybe that it has to come to the feeder for food, as it's been so hot and dry here, that it can't find other food easily. However, it could also be that it finally feels safe/comfortable enough to come into the garden, which I hope is the case. 

 I am determined to make friends with the jackdaws. I was a bit concerned that a dead one in our garden would mean that they would hate us, but apparently not.

Baby birds

 Feels like summer at the moment, it's been sunny and warm (sometimes too hot) for a couple of weeks now. There have been a lot of baby birds in the garden, mostly (very noisy) starlings, Although we have also seen a baby robin, some young sparrows and a young blue tit. The baby starlings like to sit on top of the bird feeder and shout at their parents until they come and feed them. It's adorable, but very loud.

A very sweet family of geese visited the garden the other day, 2 adults and four babies. Our neighbour called my husband to let us know they were in our garden. We watched them for a few minutes, they wanted to get through our garden to the field at the back, but the wire fence that was put up a couple of years ago was stopping them. Poor things looked very confused, then the babies started to wander off away from the parents. So, I went out and pulled up the fence (which was not put there by us, but it's on our garden boundary), making a big gap at the bottom. Luckily, after a bit of searching for their babies, all the geese went under the fence on their way to wherever they were going. The big gap/hole shall remain in the fence...as I don't want any wildlife getting stuck in a stupid wire fence. (I'm very proud of myself for making a hole in the fence to help some geese!)

One of the baby geese

 

Also, actually saw a deer in the field at the back last night. First time we've manged to see one in there! My son spotted it, while looking out of his bedroom window.

Blossom and wildflowers

 It's been ages since I've written anything here! I've been really caught up with working through the last essays for my degree (nearly done...just need to finish the final essay), and we've just had the bedroom re-plastered, so about to start decorating in there. We are sleeping downstairs while that is all being sorted. The other night, I heard a noise outside. Looked out of the window to see three badgers rummaging around under the bird feeder. They wandered off under the fence quite quickly, as I think I surprised them by appearing at the window.

We have a fair amount of blossom on some of the little fruit trees this year, so might actually get some fruit! Although, the trees are still quite small, so maybe I'm being a bit too optimistic. Even of we do get some fruit, the liklihood is the birds will get to it all before we do.

We scattered lots of wildflower seeds around the lawn earlier this year (and last year). It looks like a few are starting to grow. There are definitely some large thistles coming up in various places around the garden, which is quite nice, I think goldfinches like thistle seeds. Not planning on mowing the lawn any time soon, so hopefully some more wildflowers will appear in the next couple of months.

Vegetable planting

 I have written on here before about how I am a fairly lazy gardener. Well, that is still the case. Finally managed to weed some of the raised beds (which were all full of grass), and plant out some vegetables. I haven't planted a lot this year, as I'm expecting that we will have another heatwave over the summer, and possibly water restrictions put in place. This is what happened last year and most of the vegetables and some plants ended up dying. So, I have only planted some garlic, a lot of onions and some potatoes. The garlic seems to be doing quite well, so far. The onions have just started to grow, but the potatoes aren't doing anything yet.

As the badgers seem to visit our garden most nights, I was a little concerned about them digging up everything we'd planted. But, apparently if you lay holly branches over any new bulbs you plant, it deters various creatures from digging them up. I tried this, so far it seems to have worked. (I don't really want to put netting or anything over the vegetables, as I'm worried about birds (or other creatures) getting tangled in it.)

The trees all seem to be doing quite well, some of them have a bit of blossom on, some have small leaves and a few still just have buds. I'm not sure we'll get any fruit off of any of them this year, as they are all still quite small. But we shall see.

Goldfinch and partridge

 Although it is basically spring, the weather is still quite winter-like. It's been really cold, and the last couple of days have been very rainy. The rest of the country seems to have had or will be getting a reasonable amount of snow, but there has been none here, disappointingly.

We've done few odd bits in the garden recently, mainly just tidying up a bit. We did plant another tree - a silver birch. We also cut all the dried teasles, and hung them around the outside of the workshop, so the birds could still eat any seeds. This morning, I saw a goldfinch fluttering from one teasle to another, pecking at the seeds...so at least our efforts have been appreciated. Saw a couple of greenfinches on the bird feeder a few days ago too.

Also managed to see a red-legged partridge wandering in the field next door, it was just on the other side of the fence. First one I've seen so far this year. The rabbits seem to be in the field, running around a bit more as well. 

I haven't managed to plant any vegetables in the garden yet, and I need to do a lot of weeding! It's just been too cold. Hopefully the weather will get a bit milder soon, so I can actually go out and get some stuff planted.

Sparrowhawk

 About a week ago, a sparrowhawk killed a starling and ate it in my garden. This happened right outside my living room window, and my son witnessed the whole thing. Obviously, he was a bit upset by it. I missed this brutal incident, and came in to find that my son had closed the blinds and turned up the volume on the TV so he couldn't hear the starling screeching. 

After I'd calmed him down a little, I opened the blind slightly to see if the bird was still there. It was quite happily sitting on the lawn, eating the remains of the starling. I managed to get a photo (don't worry, you can't see anything gross in it). Sparrowhawks are stunning birds, and as I expalined to my son, they need to eat to survive, so they need to hunt. It was just unfortunate for us (and the starling) that it chose to hunt in our garden, near the window. I suppose, in a way, it's good that the sparrowhawk felt safe enough in the garden to sit and eat. Eventually, it flew off when my husband home, taking the remains of the starling with it.

Sparrowhawk on the lawn