6.05 p.m.; There’s a limping wood pigeon that has been a regular at the bird feeders for a month or more, so much so that it has trampled a ring of beaten earth around the foxglove beneath the feeding pole. However, as soon as I sit down at the dining table to draw, it turns its back on me then flies off to the wood.
Reach for the Rowan
In the front garden, the rowan is at its best in fresh leaf and blossom. The flowers have a sweetish musky scent and attract a variety of species of flies. Because of all that happened this winter, I didn’t get around to pruning the new growth of straight upper branches but I’d like to do that because otherwise it will be on its way to towering over the house. I’d like to keep it to the height that I can reach with my telescopic handled pruner, about ten feet or so.
I’ll check with my arboriculturist friend Roger that pruning during the spring won’t cause the sap to run, leaving a sticky residue that might result in fungal damage.
According to superstition, the Rowan is supposed to bring good luck, having one so close to the house must be bringing you luck by the bucket full?
The Druids called it the Portal tree as they thought it to be a link between this world and the next.
So there you have it – it will bring you good luck, but if you get too close it may whisk you off to the next world!
So that’s why I’ve had so much good luck over the last 25 years! Just been cutting back the cleavers and wood avens beneath it, but luckily I didn’t get whisked away.