November 14th 2011 ~ Medlar Confusion

This year has passed by so quickly and we have been so busy that the garden has had to take care of itself on the whole. I will try to catch up with a few images and reports as the year draws to a close.

One of the mildest October/November spells I can remember; we wait to see if records will be broken or whether we will after all have snow before the end of the month!!

The Medlar Tree

It is laden with fruit so we shall once again be busy making jelly and chutney in time for Christmas I hope.

Autumn or Spring
Ripe fruits and blossom

Bud about to open

A new shoot emerging over a ripe fruit

A bletted fruit, ready to pick despite only one of the lightest frost some weeks ago and only then on the car windscreen really.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker ~ June 11th 2011

Great Spotted Woodpecker




We do see two Great Spotted Woodpeckers in the garden at the same time and so assume we have a male and a female but we have, so far, only caught the male on camera clearly. He shows with the red patch at the back of his head which is absent in the female. the juveniles have a red crown so maybe we will be lucky and have them as visitors one day soon.

We might be lucky one day to have a Green Woodpecker visit us
~a true Hampshire (Professor) Yaffle as in Bagpuss~

For further information check out the RSPB web-site here

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/families/woodpeckers.aspx

May 2011 ~ Indoor Gardening

Flowering Cactus

Flowers all out at the same time
We have had this cactus for years but usually only get one flower at a time

May 2011 ~ Bombus Hypnorum

Bombus Hypnorum

Bee, licking the inside of tulip petals; you can see his red 'tongue'
This bee was busy on this flower for well over 10 minutes

Bombus Hypnorum, bee, on Ceanothus

This year instead of Blue-tits we have bees in the nesting box
We have researched them and found they are a fairly recent arrival to our shores

Bombus Hypnorum is a tree bee which presumably explains why they like the position of this box which is fixed at first floor level


These two passed each near the box

March 2011 ~ The Growing Year Starts Again

March 2011

It is a year since I started this blog and I am quite pleased with the way it has worked out.
Recently there has been a gap as we were away through the whole of February so I pretty much missed the crocuses and snowdrops.

I was delighted though to get home and see the Daphne looking so amazing.

Daphne ~ Best Flowering Ever
This plant was covered and flattened by 8" of snow twice last year and I would not have been surprised if I had 'lost' it but here it is flowering better than ever and smelling so sweetly.

Last September I planted dozens of new daffodils and so I am waiting to see what has survived and flowers and see if I can recognise any of them with their different varieties.

In the meantime here is the Forsythia in all its glory

Forsythia

Winter 2010/2011 Signs of Life

December 2010 ~ Winter Snow

Snow Cover