May to Midsummer

Her highness has been nagging. She feels she hasn’t had enough exposure in recent months. I point out that doing her ablutions in public gives her more than enough exposure,

but the steely eyed gaze continually boring into my back is unnerving.

So here it is, a catch up post. A month in a spring garden is a long, long time.

Went back to Arduaine with Mum and Dad on the May day bank holiday.

The blooms were superb but that post will now have to be postponed until the dark days of winter.

Midge farm has had its share of the gorgeous:

and the not so gorgeous. These keep appearing in my weed buckets but I believe they eat slugs so they are very welcome.

The mouse has been about but, now the undergrowth is so thick, the most I see is his long tail whipping into the wall.

I let the cuckoo flower grow at will and the May garden was full of orange tip butterflies.

A speckled wood male visited for the first time:

Blue Peter exploded into a froth of spotty, girly, lilac loveliness.

Baby birds have been everywhere. The spugs were the first to fledge. There have, I think, been three separate broods. There are so many now I can’t count them as they won’t stay still, over 25 at times. They’re eating me out of house and home but I’m happy to see them as they are suffering declines elsewhere.

The great tit has been the hardest worker. Six fledglings who followed him round for weeks.

And of course the starlings come swooping in bringing their noisy kids.

The dunnocks are around and much bolder than last year but I haven’t seen any fledglings.

A collared dove with partial albinism has been a regular visitor, always alone. The doves with regular plumage are rarely apart. The RSPB says birds with albinism may have difficulty finding a mate. I hope that isn’t the case for this one.

Smudge is bird watching too. She is scared of the hoodies but intrigued when they come to eat her left over dinner.

On the upper tier I have left the clover to romp away and it is covered with bumble bees every day.

This little lad is in the paddock behind Midge farm and often hangs over the fence on the upper tier snorting at Smudge.

Any idea what these are:

or this?

Luckily my veg containers have escaped their attentions. My first ever tatties! I hope the courgettes are meant to have yellow leaves, the fruits are a yellow, mildew resistant variety.

Had my first ever Midge farm, broad beans for dinner last night. The bees and I thank Dad for the plant.

May and June have been filled with long sunny days. Fingers crossed that it continues.

That brings us to Midsummer, and a beautiful sunset at 10:30 last night.

But the last word is always reserved for:

We’re waking up

Midgefarm is stirring.

The mice are on the move. A new run under the compost bin keeps Old Podge sternly focused on the upper tier.

Meanwhile the mouse has decamped to the roots of the rowan tree two tiers below and sits happily stuffing its cheeks with bird seed.

The blackbird has been singing his heart out all week in the sycamore. Winter still lives in the shade of the woods behind the house

but even there Spring has crept in.

Spring, an exhausting time for some.

Poor Patty Bee

Garden and blog have been neglected for what seems like months and it shows. My poor patch is suffering from the combined effects of a harsh winter and an inattentive gardener. It’s a midden but I console myself with the thought that the birds and bugs don’t care and may even benefit from the mess.

I saw the first bumble bee today (although she may have been around before, I just haven’t been out in the garden to see her.)

There are very few flowers out, just a few brave primroses which I’m not even sure bumbles feed on. Is she a queen? She was paying a lot of attention to the ground and I wondered if she was looking for a nesting site.

And no I haven’t named her Patty Bee, though come to think of it I may do so. The Patty Bee in the title is my poor dwarf rhodie which I don’t think will survive. A winter of repeated freeze/thaws has left a sad, wizened little plant. This time last year she was a riot of pale yellow buds.

But amidst the loss and chaos there are some small triumphs. I planted this globe flower last year. It seemed to take one look at my garden and collapse in a wilted, slimy heap (a not uncommon occurrence among plants and people faced with my midge farm for the first time) but here it is apparently back in strength and making me very happy.

Geranium splish splash (grown from seed last year) is looking robust in among the weeds.

Camellia donation is almost out, many of the buds are frosted but I think there will be enough for a show.and Mum’s teasels are looking good.

I’ve been travelling a lot recently hence the Garden of Neglect. This week I was out on the Uists, a network of tiny islands linked by causeways.

At first glance the landscape appears very brown and barren, splashes of colour stand out because they are so unusual.

But then your eye adapts and you realise how beautiful a landscape without trees can be. There are greylag geese grazing everywhere, like rabbits, and the mudflats all around are covered in an amazing variety of wading birds.

It was frustrating that I was working and couldn’t stop but just from the car I think I saw a corncrake and watched a buzzard dive down by the side of the road to take a wriggling vole up in it’s claws.

I had a couple of hours at the end of the visit while waiting for the Loch Maddy ferry. But the tide was relatively high and the terminal didn’t support the population of waders I saw elsewhere

Looking closely however I could see some oystercatchers roosting in the kelp.

And it was peaceful watching the calmac ferry slowly appear on the horizon coming to take me home.

This post approved for publication by my expert advisor: