Aviary without walls

Birds do not spend all their lives searching for food.  I have discovered this by observation - watching the collared doves and the blackbirds.  This week, for example 'Mrs Beaky' the female blackbird was sunbathing on the rear patio.  She flew down, settled herself and preened, spreading her wings open in the sun.  It seemed to me to be a vulnerable position, but she was close to the hedge and seemed relaxed enough.

The collared doves like to stay together.  They sit down on the concrete wall which is wide enough for them to perch, but of sufficient height for them to keep a beady eye open.  When they preen they seem to be able to rotate their heads looking completely over their shoulders which is slightly disconcerting to the onlooker. 

The bullfinch sings all evening high up in the birch trees, the blackbirds too sing as evening turns to dusk.  

Protective Hedge

Many of our garden birds have only just begun their nests.  Our blackbirds 'Mr and Mrs Beaky' started in our clematis 'Broughton Star', took up moss from our lawn (we can still see the bare patches) and then abandoned the attempt.  I think they must now be in the high hedge.  This morning I noticed a wren, which also lives in its shade, gathering discarded feathers.  Our cheerful sparrows have done the same.  No takers for our birdbox though, which we moved from the wall outside our kitchen to the rear of the shed.  It is scrubbed, painted and fresh, waiting for takers next year.  Meanwhile I can hear the blue tits in the hedge and the birch trees.

A most intriguing visitor, however, is a field mouse.  Or is it a vole?  This shy creature has decided to make a nest in the crack between two of the pavers close to our greenhouse.  Towards the end of the afternoon we have seen it dragging leaves down there and then popping up again and scuttling into the shelter of the hedge.  I hope it is harmless and feeds on berries and nuts as the reference books suggest.

Amorous wood pigeons are billing and cooing on our fence. 

The only birds to which my charity does not extend are the magpies.  Whenever I hear the blackbirds' alarm call I stand on the back step and clap my hands to scatter them.

Summer bedding on a budget

I was weeding our front patio this afternoon when I remembered that I had once blogged on a gardening job to the effect that 'weeds are nature's alpines'.  It would be about a year ago, as I prised hairy bittercress and other annual weeds from between the cracks.  A year on, and I was carrying out the same actions in our own front garden.

However, I am glad to say that we do now have alpines, thanks to a well known family owned northern supermarket chain who discounted a selection on 'yellow sticker' (half price).  They were fine, I assured my husband, they just needed nursing back into health. I came home with a yellow potentilla, a dianthus (a smaller one to substitute for the nice one we potted on for my sister), a sea pink, another saxifrage and two sempervivum.  These latter like dry, stony conditions - perhaps not the optimum choice for our front bed. 

After that I went back for the mimulus at 50p.  My husband managed to salvage five out of six and they are now establishing themselves.

Today we went to a national chain where I get pensioners' discount on Tuesdays.  Purple petunias were purchased on orange sticker, under pressure from me, I must confess.  I did confess and make up.  My long-suffering husband dead-headed, discarded and planted the best of the survivors among what remains of our winter pansies.  It  looks if they have always been there.  Now we wait for them to flower again.