Art Gallery – Free Admission

As we go about our daily rounds sometimes it feels as if we are in an Art Gallery

Colours, shapes and shadows adorn the surroundings

and each day the hangings are altered

Here a few more art works we have stumbled on in the last few days

The Time of Small Things

After the driest April in living memory we are nearing the end of the wettest May in living memory

Across the Plant Kingdom things have leapt into life

and the Animal Kingdom is full of small things growing up.

Most creatures are far too small to attract much attention, and even most small birds are too well hidden as they are fed by non stop parents.

Sparrows don’t care

they even use the Sparrow Terrace so everyone knows where they are

Small Rabbit Jenny has been brought in to improve our breeding stock of Silver Foxes

She is biding her time

The hen chicks that were small things are now living in the greenhouse

but would like to be on the move

Their smallness status has been usurped

Claire hatched some eggs

and also took on some incubator hatchees to include in her training programme

Some eggs are still waiting

Rewilding the Tulips

When Monty Don, on last week’s Gardeners’ World, said he had planted tulips in his orchard for the first time we knew he had been spying on us

because that is what we had done

The bulbs were planted rather late

but seemed to have struggled to the surface

Some of the pictures that follow might just look like Tulips in a pot, or a municipal bed, but trust us….

…they look much better among the long grass in the orchard

They are – in the orchard

Consider the Humble Dandelion

We are slowly trying to maintain and expand a new flower border for perennials and herbaceous plants interspaced with some annuals. This month we noticed a flower we had not invited

We were about to attack when we heard a voice:

“Hello, you might call me a weed but I’m a friend and have come to help you. I’m the only one who wants and can grow here because:

• Either the soil is too compact and I want to loosen it for you with my roots.
• Or there is too little calcium in the soil – don’t worry, I will replenish that for you with the dying of my leaves.
• Or the soil is too acidic, but I will also improve that for you if you give me the chance.”
  

So had a think… and thought that if we had grown these flowers from seed and cossetted the plants to produce blooms like this

we would be very pleased. The voice reinforced this view with a slightly threatening:

“I’m here because your soil needs my help so best you let me grow without disturbing me! When everything is fixed, I will disappear again, I promise!
Are you trying to remove me prematurely with my root? However meticulous you are, I will return twice as strong! Just until your soil is improved.”

We had noticed that the blooms had many visitors

sometimes very small

The voice explained:

“My flowers are the first food for insects after hibernation and unlike most other plants, I have pollen and nectar, not merely one or the other! And I am generous with them!”

We did know of the culinary possibilities

The voice elucidated:

“My flowers are even delicious for you people by the way, did you know? I used to be called ′′honey (or gold) of the poor′′ because my flowers are so sweet in jam, sauce or salad!”

So we decided to just enjoy

Creatures of May

A quick tour of some of the other animals who have been sharing our patch in the last couple of weeks…

This pair of Canada Geese have taken to cruising by in the mornings

we hear them before we see them and all their movements take place in perfect synchronisation. One morning they even landed and were caught in the distance on a phone camera

We had lots of frogspawn down at the lake. The tadpoles developed and vanished. One of them decided to take up residence in a polytunnel water tank

We must have scores of nests on site but get to know the location of very few, outside the boxes. The sparrows use under the eaves but this one has actually deigned to use the purpose built Sparrow terrace

We listen out for the songs of returning migrant warblers but they are not easy to capture on camera. So far the Blackcap has evaded attempts but we did catch a fleeting shot of the Chiffchaff

Some birds are less shy

We have a camera on one of the feeders letting us catch close ups…

…of the seldom seen in the case of the Reed Bunting…

…the otherwise shy Jay…

…and the ubiquitous Wood Pigeon which seems to kind of exist under the radar – to big to be noticed?

Another camera brought us excitement

the first evidence of hedgehog activity for well over a year. We had quite a few on site before the drought of 2019.

And also on camera an ordinary bird doing an ordinary activity but somehow the video has an intimacy which illustrates the myriad animal moments which take place each day at Gribin Isaf

The April Showers of May

As everyone knows, we have just had an unusual April

Here we had eighteen nights with frost and 18.4 mm of rain, 13.4 of which fell in three days

Last year’s April

we had one night of frost and 31.6 mm of rain.

Now that May is here we are getting all the April showers that didn’t happen

So at last things feel a little more normal and growth is accelerating.

Now that the ducks have moved out of the orchard we are trying to encourage a native and introduced meadow mix. Earlier this year we planted a load of bulbs that should have gone in during the Autumn. These tulips are making up for lost time

The Jack-by-the-hedge has been spreading

and the Orange Tips are seeking it out

Lady’s-smock is starting to pop up all over the place

The small tunnel has been full for a while

We are trying to be more organised with our sowing this year

and today we started the seventh succession batch of lettuce. This lot is still in the packed greenhouse

while this lot are being harvested

The first lot of peas are in the tunnel too

The big tunnel is starting to get sorted

First tomatoes are in position. We are growing eight varieties this year

After an abysmal crop last year, due to lack of sun, we are hoping for better things.

Cherries are already forming in that tunnel

Here are some more splashes of May colour

Feather Treasure

A mixed flock

providing a mixed haul

And individually, exotic works of art:

Bert

You could say that Bert was at least partly responsible for us ending up where we are now, doing what we do.

We first met him in August 2014 when he was living in Shropshire and seeing the little set-up he had got there made as wonder if we could do something similar.

Less than five months after meeting Bert we made that change and then seven months after that he decided to come and live with us.

He had sent his lady friend over to us a few weeks previously and they settled down together for a life of leisure and procreation. As time went by Bert concentrated on the former having become not so good at the latter. We felt he had earned the right to enjoy a quiet retirement but also knew that ultimately we would have to decide when it would come to an end…

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So here is Bert when we first met him in Shropshire

He in fact had two lady friends at that time, Spot and Peggy, and earlier that year had jumped a couple of fences and was therefore a happy father of two litters.

Spot arrived with as on 25th August 2015

and soon made herself at home

and then Bert arrived a week later

and quickly renewed his friendship

Bert had a history

But since he had been inactive in the pedigree world for some time he had been pronounced dead. After much persuasion we managed to get him brought back to life

So that after resuming his relationship with Spot

producing some offspring with a vague resemblance to Saddlebacks

he was able to have a new, purebred lady friend, Dinah

and so produce some proper Saddleback babies

Bert continued to spend time for on favourite activities

this was Christmas dinner 2019:

but was happy for others to undertake reproduction duties (we weren’t as good at it as he was)

Having decided he could continue to have free board and lodgings into his retirement we knew that we had taken on the responsibility for his well being.

A few weeks ago he stopped eating. That is very unusual for a pig. He had steroids and antibiotics to see if they would help but he continued to ignore food. He was not in distress and still had the occasional amble and wallow but we was obviously getting weaker. We knew if we waited until he became immobile we would have a big logistical problem so eventually we took the decision to bring in the fallen stock experts.

He was at ease until the end, in familiar surroundings with familiar smells.

March 22nd 2010 – April 20th 2021