Month: May 2021

Every Flower Counts

results

With ‘No Mow May’ drawing to a close, it’s time to count the flowers that have sprung up on our front lawn. I throw a small chunk of wood over my shoulder to randomly select my square metre sample.

Results: 8 daisies, 2 common mouse-ear and 75 germander speedwell flowers.

Plantlife calculate that, taking this as an average for my 14.4 square metre lawn, the flowers are producing 1.7 milligrams of nectar per square metre, enough to support 2 bees across the entire lawn.

Let’s hope that I can improve on that with next year’s ‘Every Flower Counts’ survey.

Totties

view from Totties
New Mill Church

In Old English, ‘tōta’ was a look-out post, which is appropriate for the hamlet of Totties, perched on the hill overlooking New Mill.

Christ Church, New Mill, built in 1830 was designed in gothic revival style by Peter Atkinson.

Drawn, during our latte and scone break, from Totties Garden Centre, one of two garden centres in the village.

Picnic on the Patch

Picnic on the Patch cartoon
snail mail

Note: Slimer & Shelley have now been relocated to the other side of the hedge, following their night raid on the climbing French beans.

snail cartoon

Wild Flowers with Attitude

wild flowers cartoon

I’m saying with flowers for Sofia, who becomes a teenager today.

Flower number three is a bit of a tribute to Burt Lahr, the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz:

I’m afraid there’s no denying
I’m just a dandy lion,
A fate I don’t deserve

But I could show my prowess
Be a lion, not a mouse
If I only had the nerve.

Yip Harburg (lyrics), ‘If I only had the Nerve’, ‘The Wizard of Oz’
wild flowers birthday rhyme

Sun Spurge

sun spurge

My peppers are more than ready for potting on but I wanted to draw this Sun Spurge, Euphorbia helioscopia, now going to seed, before I do that. I took the soil for the peppers from the greenhouse, so it’s not surprising that this sprouted. Spurge ‘bribes’ ants to disperse its seed by tempting them with oil-rich attachments – elaiosomes – which the ants or their larvae eat before discarding the seed.

Like all euphorbias, as a deterrent to herbivores, the Sun Spurge has milky, latex sap that can cause irritation.

Goslings

coot

Newmillerdam Lake, War Memorial, Monday, 24 May, 2021, 10.50 a.m., 63℉, 7℃, 80% cloud: A coot swims to the shore and immediately sees off two snoozing mallard drakes. It preens and pods about a bit then goes back to the lake.

gosling

Two pairs of pink-footed goose come ashore, each with a single gosling.

mallard drake

Two weeks ago I drew the coot on the nest by the outlet sitting on eggs, last week there were about eight chicks and this week the nest is empty, with no sign of any addled eggs left behind. Nearer the war memorial there’s a coot still sitting on its nest, no sign of chicks peeping out as we passed.

wildfowl

Exodus

The Exodus

I’d forgotten that in my last year at Junior School, I’d produced this Cecil B. de Mille inspired version of The Book of Exodus.

Growing up in a then rather grimy pre-smokeless zone little town, with our regular entertainment provided by a 12 inch Bush black and white 405 line television, it’s hard to exaggerate the impact that seeing Biblical epics like The Ten Commandments had on me.

Continue reading Exodus

Peppers and Chickweed

peppers

This is not the ideal way to grow peppers. I took some seed from a red pepper in early spring, dried it, then planted it in garden soil from the greenhouse. First to germinate were garden weeds, mainly chickweed but also red deadnettle, spurge and what I think is nipplewort.

The pepper seedlings are now looking yellow and undernourished, so it’s time for me to pot them on and give them a chance to grow, flower and fruit.

Coot Chicks

coot chicks

Newmillerdam, 10.55 a.m., 100% cloud, 7℃, 45℉, rain: Three mallard drakes are soon chased away by the second, non-brooding bird, which soon returns to feed the chicks. Unfortunately the nest platform is festooned with soggy white bread but the young are also getting natural food as the second bird dives nearby, which is more popular than the gloopy, soggy bread.

From 10 or 12 feet away, I can’t see the flanges that are already starting to develop along the toes of the coot chicks’ feet. Three of the chicks are noticeably larger than the others and already coming out for a brief swim around the nest. The smaller chicks stay under the brooding bird.

When it comes on to rain all the chicks somehow find room in the nest, one of them just poking its head out from the shelter of ‘mum’s’ (I’m guessing it’s mum) wing and getting fed when the other adult swims in with the odd morsel of food. I can’t tell what the food is but one bit looked a bit wispy as if it was waterweed.

Sparrows Gritting

sparrows gritting

You could describe it as biological erosion: a few weeks ago I noticed a small group of house sparrows ‘gritting’ on an old sandstone wall in Horbury.

The sand grains are used in the bird’s gizzard to help grind down the seeds and grain that form its staple diet. Sparrows will also peck at mortar on walls, which gives them an extra mineral, calcium carbonate, in the cement.

Like other aspects of sparrow life – such as feeding, drinking, dust bathing and courtship – this is an opportunity for a bit of a social gathering and the inevitable chirruping dispute.