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Saturday 30 April 2011

What's it all about?

Maybe I should explain why I bothered to start this blog in the first place. I've always loved spending time in my garden looking for insects, gardening, tracking in the snow, anything really, but with time at a premium with a young family I've found it difficult to enjoy quality time away from the hustle and bustle, somewhere quiet and peaceful, surrounded by nature.

I think every human being needs to spend regular quality time out and about, amongst nature, but it's easier said than done.

However, now the girls are growing up and my little one is going to PROPER school in a few months time :(, I reckon I might be able to snatch a little more time here and there.

I've never recorded the species I've seen, apart from in my head, but that's not a lot of use to anyone and I'd like to make "Nature" more of a hobby, so I've just started my first book of records and it's really exciting!! 

My Bit of Peace and Quiet
I've always fed the birds in my garden and at the moment I'm trying to cater for every species I can think of and probably spending far too much money on it. 

Today, I compiled my first proper list of all the birds species that have honoured me with visits to our garden over the last 11 years (well those that I've seen anyway). 

Along with the usual Blue Tits, Sparrows and Blackbirds, I've also seen a Kingfisher diving for small fry in our pond, a Green Woodpecker pecking up insects from amongst the grass and this year, after much persistence with Niger Seed, we've finally seen Goldfinches!

My garden is approx 60ft length by 30ft wide and it has a little "rill"; a little stretch of water a couple of metres long by about a foot or two wide. It was added as a replacement for a 5ft deep pond which was filled in when I realised that having little ones running around, finding their feet did not really sit well with a 5ft deep pond.

I loved that pond and was sad to see it go. When we emptied it we found 72 frogs and countless invertebrates and waterlife. Really sad, but at the end of the day, the children's safety has to come first. I'm hoping to build another pond in a few years time.

Anyway, the rill is brilliant. It sits just waist height from the ground behind a pile of sleepers and is perfect for the kids. It's only 20-30cm deep and they stick their hands in to fish out frogs and snails and dragonfly larvae. I grab pieces of pondweed and pull it apart carefully to find any living things and put them back in the water. Last year we had 8 newts; 5 male and 3 female, and later in the year we found Newtlets which was such a thrill. They're back again this year!

I've managed to keep the garden a suitable place for wildlife (i.e. unkempt and planted with bug and butterfly temptations) due to having a gardener husband whose idea of a relaxing weekend is NOT doing the garden! I have a lovely pile of rotting wood and leaves, rocks in the borders, insect houses, grass areas and dense (weedy) areas, stinging nettle patches and a messy garden shed.

I'm growing Rudbeckia and Echinacea from seed this year to try to attract more flying beauties to my garden. I'll let you know how that goes!




A right royal moth!


Yesterday was the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge. We were planning on a chilled out day round at my Mum and Dad's house with all the family, but it didn't turn out that way.

The day before, I had an email at work from my sister, Tracey, to tell me that Dad was ill with Gastric Flu and the day had been cancelled.

I should have just said "Oh no, what a shame" and we could have had a quiet one at home, but to be honest, on a day like that you want to be around people, so I offered to do it at mine instead! Cue racing round the shops, spending, phoning, baking for the next 24hrs. I woke at 6am on the Wedding day and didn't stop until 8:30pm, but it was a great day.

The dress, the ring that nearly didn't go on Kate's finger, our future King taking his new wife for a spin in an old Aston Martin - it was great. We had a laugh with all our friends, neighbours and family and it was well worth all the effort.

And then... just to top the day off for me, my four year old daughter, Holly, brought in an egg cup with her hand over the end. "Look what I've found Mummy" and she took her hand away and there was the most beautiful moth. Ant (male, 34years old) shrieked like a girl and I got the Insect book out, but I couldn't pinpoint it.

I took a picture and started a new thread on wildaboutbritain.co.uk (which is fab by the way), and sure enough a Knight Grand Cross of the Wild Empire, by the name of Aeshna (actually, maybe it was a dame) told me that this lovely creature was called an Angle-Shades Moth. One more to add to my list!