Butterflies in the garden today

Another meadow brown, there were several flying in the paddock behind the garden. This one had frayed wings. I don't know if it was damaged by the heavy rain we've had this week or if it's nearing the end of its life.

I think this is a green veined white but it's markings are much less distinct than the ones that were flying in May (see pics below, click to enlarge).

It's not a large or small white, as they both have a single dark spot on the under wing, so a process of elimination suggests green veined.

The blue tits are my pride and joy this year. For the first time a pair of birds has nested in a box I put up. I had two nest boxes in the Tilly garden that were never used. I put this one up last Spring but too late to attract nesters. It’s on the wall of the summerhouse facing the leylandii hedge. I thought it would be sheltered there, protected from predators and have lots of nearby vegetation for the chicks to fledge on to. It seems the blue tits agreed. I saw them inspecting it early in the year but once the leaves are on the weigela, you can’t see the box from the house. I didn’t know they were definitely using it until May when it was warm enough to spend some time on the summerhouse decking and there I could see the blue tits flying in and out carrying caterpillars.


The chicks fledged in June, and were brought by their parents straight to the feeders. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, as they may not learn to hunt for themselves but all the wildlife sites recommend you continue to feed through the Summer.

The birds

For me, birds and gardening go together. I wouldn’t want one without the other. I’m lucky with this garden; there was already a well established population of residents and visitors when I arrived. The chaffinches dominate in the winter. Flocks of twenty or thirty individuals come dipping and chattering in, to sit in the rowan tree and fight over the feeders and bird table. The starlings are always around. They resemble a crowd of rowdy bikers, zooming into the garden with their black feathers gleaming like studded leather jackets. They screech to a halt at the table, toss whatever is on offer around and then rev up and leave at high speed for the next garden. Despite this bad boy image they are devoted parents and have successfully reared two large broods this year. The pic shows an adult with part of their first brood at the table in May.

Forget the hobnobs...

...the gooseberries are ripe mmmmmmmmmm crumble.

Learn to love a slug?

"Learn to love a slug." That's what one of the wildlife sites advises. Give it plenty of organic debris, like fallen leaves and flowers, and it will clean up your garden for you and be too busy to chomp the plants you value. Hah! My garden is not tidy. It is a morass of vegetation, some dead, some dying, some springing to life. At the moment there are foxglove flowers littering the ground everywhere. Do the slugs help to tidy them up? Do they weecht. No, they prefer to munch on my lovely violas. I have had one success though. I have been growing salad leaves in small troughs by the kitchen door. In an effort to deter the slugs I've been emptying the used coffee grounds into the troughs and around their rims and bases. The salad seems to grow quite happily through the mulch of grounds and the slugs have left them alone. Unfortunately so have I and now they have bolted everywhere. I should have let the slugs have 'em. Salad pah, you can't even deep fat fry it. If only chocolate hobnobs grew in tubs of compost.

(BTW I have only just discovered if you click on the thumbnail pics they'll open in to a larger image.)

Pretty things

Posting these pics I took yesterday because it's raining today, so I sat down to do some filing and organising of my finances and of course immediately started multi-shirking on the computer. I'm loving the lush greeness in the first tier at the moment. Another surprise rose has popped up. This time a scarlet show-off that clashes magnificently with the crimson rose from earlier in the week. The pansies have recovered from the slugs' attentions. They have been flowering steadily since March (when not acting as a slug salad bar). And finally a delicate clematis just starting to open at the steps to the second tier.

The view

I’ve mentioned the loch several times but it’s been like a silent character in a radio play, only there because I have spoken about it. So here it is, the view from the top of the garden and from the summerhouse.