This wet weather is bringing more slugs and snails out, I can’t remember them being so bad last year. Plants are collapsing or disappearing overnight.
Birds stripped every single strawberry, ripe or not within a day, next year I will protect them.
The old roses are balling, what a waste of heavy headed pale pink Juno, Blanche Fleur and Boule de Neige. Please just a bit of sun to cheer up the sizzling coloured pelargonium flowers rotting on their stems, open the first french lavender flowers and opium poppies, bring on the sweet peas – lift the general mood of gloom.
There are some lovely scents around though this morning. I’ve raved about Philadelphus Casa Azul before, the rich perfume is filling the surrounding area and roses too are having a subtle impact on the air.
We’ve just swapped the willow fluff seed dispersal (seedlings already germinating in pots) with another fast and opportunistic coloniser, birch. The birch seeds get everywhere. Plant pots provide a fertile germinating ground,
Corvids and raptors
A cacophony of rooks and jackdaws has been with us for the last couple of days in the trees close to us. The noise and constant large swirling forays has been quite distracting. This morning all was peaceful (briefly) just the Carrion Crows calling to each other across the fields (the trees belong to them). But I can hear the chack of the Jackdaws and chaw of rooks drawing closer again. I presume it’s a gathering of family groups, some seem to have wing feathers missing so are having a post nesting moult, etc.
We hadn’t seen the Kestrel or Sparrowhawks for a while but both male and female sparrowhawks have been running low level sorties in the garden recently. A Kestrel was working the parish field on Saturday. It must have been aware of me watching but took no notice as it constantly adjusted its wings and foot position in the brisk North Westerly breeze.