Fauna

Not the world's sharpest image, but clear enough to show some of our local wildlife.  Martyn was looking out over the garden this morning at around pee o'clock and called me: this magnificent badger was just finishing off the peanuts, and then moved on to the bird seed.  I grabbed the SLR camera and propped it against the window frame, getting this and a couple of other views despite 1-second exposures.  The lamp over the terrace was just strong enough, but lacked the width of beam I'd have needed to catch the foxes that were also in the garden at the time.  Back to more familiar traffic this morning: Arthur Mallard has been in for his breakfast and pushed off again.  We have a number of newts in the pond, and see a frog there from time to time.  We aren't seeing so many of the smaller birds this year for some reason.  I don't think either of our nesting boxes is in use, though there is definitely a family of blue tits somewhere nearby, and we saw a blackbird feeding one of its young yesterday.  Of pigeons, wood and feral, no shortage, and the jays too appreciate the peanuts.   

The flora aren't doing badly either.  We're getting as much as we can planted out in preparation for our travels, and Martyn has ordered an irrigation device, which should help to ensure that we have tomatoes and spuds.  Strong winds and rain have meant that our oriental poppies have lasted even less long than usual.  The aquilegias we planted last year are giving a good show now, and the cistus and their helianthemum cousins are also doing well.  This year's first batch of fuchsia cuttings is now spread across beds and containers: remains to be seen if the next lot will make it.  I set to with a pickaxe and broke up the bed under the front window on Monday, and heaved in a couple of buckets of home-made compost.  The soil was like concrete, the gutter above it having leaked on it for a few months last winter until we could get it sorted.  I've planted out a batch of rudbeckia seedlings and hope they strengthen up before the slugs get them.  Not terribly good plants: the compost I've been using seems prone to mildew.  Well, as we usually say, they'll do one thing or the other.