Doing What Cats Do

It is a gorgeous day today! Warm, light breeze and only a few clouds in the sky.The cows are back out in the fields too. They look grateful to be back out in the fresh air after being in sheds, eating silage all winter. The cows sort of keep me company when I'm out in the garden.My friend Elaine called and asked if I wanted to go for a walk. I'll always go for a walk, especially with a friend on lovely spring days. I tucked my camera into my pocket in case I saw anything worth photographing.
Just as we were setting out we were met by our cat, Julio. He was strutting to the house with a prize, a stoat. The thing was still breathing. Poor creature! I called out to The Man of the Place and he assisted Julio in making certain that the stoat no longer suffered. Julio and stoat

Look! The animal is so large that it drags on the ground. Julio came home with a few scratches on his nose the other day. Today a few more scratches have been added to the collection. I suspect now that it was a stoat that had inflicted the earlier damage as the new scratches sort of match the old ones.Wild primroses

Settign out on the walk we saw lots of wild primrose. Bluebells are starting to pop out and they'll be at their peak in a week or two.

Back home Julio is sleeping in a sunbeam now after having a post-battle wash. He is one mighty hunter!! That is what cats do. I can't say that I like when he kills things but I wish he'd hunt moles.Photo by Dean of DDD

I've seen a couple of beautiful Orange tip butterflies. They only fly in the spring so it is always a treat to see them.

Whack-a-Mole

I watched yesterday as the new lone mole hill by the bird table turned into three mole hills. The bottom mole hill was first and was there when I woke up yesterday. I actually saw it getting bigger at one point! The little nearsighted creature was pushing dirt up as I watched.

By dinner time yesterday there were three mole hills where previously there were two. Why do they like my lawn when there is a HUGE field just a few metres away.

This morning I watched the mole make the top mole hill bigger. I could see him fluffing up the soil like the front garden was just a big feather duvet. The Man of the Place suggested that if I dash out there with my spade and scoop up the loose dirt, I would be able to not only see the mole but would be able to bash it on the head. It all sounded a bit violent and I couldn't bring myself to do it.

I know it's squeamish, girly and ever so slightly citified but I couldn't go out there and crush a mole's skull. I can do other murderous things. I can set and empty mouse traps, move spiders out of the tub, butcher, pluck and clean poultry and clear my nose by holding one nostril and blowing hard off to one side but I cannot whack-a-mole. I'm going to have to leave that bit of grizzly countryside life to the professionals. Time to call the Mike the gamekeeper.

Not Just Yet

The desire to plant up the garden is at its height just before the threat of frost passes. One is tempted to plant out all those tender plants that are waiting patiently in the greenhouse.
I know - from bitter experience - that if I do, they will die. We will almost certainly have a late frost OR wind that will blow hard for days and burn everything.

I'm waiting.The garden is dug over.The chickens were grateful recipients of all the perennial weeds. It solves the problem with what to do with these weeds. One cannot compost perennial weeds. Burning them isn't an option so the chicken run is a great place to throw these things. The chickens will kill them dead (and turn them into eggs)!So, while I wait I'll admire the boldness of the plum tree. This Victoria Plum doesn't care that it is not yet June and is going to bloom away despite the calender.The Forget-me-not is in bloom too. This particular flower can be found on the south side of our place at the foot of a clematis that will also be blooming soon. One year the spring winds blew for three days running and burnt the clematis blossom. See? It doesn't pay to be too early. I almost cut the whole climber down in disgust. Clematis montana Elizabeth is a rampant thug of a vine and I only tolerate it only because of the delicate pink, slightly perfumed flowers it shows in early spring.

I suppose I could put the cabbages and cauliflower out. They're pretty hardy. Maybe I'll do that today. We'll see . . . .

Birthday Girl!

It is Cinco de Mayo and my dear cousin Paula's birthday. In honour of both we had Mexican food for dinner tonight. Well, as Mexican as you can get over here in Scotland. (I do my best)

Paula is one fantastic gal!! I have always been in awe of her. She is gorgeous, smart, a great sense of humor and has a wonderful family. I think her wedding was the first that I was ever allowed to attend. I was gobsmacked by the sight of her on her wedding day. I still remember her crimped hair (by Horst of Minneapolis) and the carrot wedding cake. :-)

Happy Birthday darling!

In The Garden

It was a nice spring day. Though I was warmed by my tasks, the sweater never came off. Laundry dried nicely on the line as The Man of the Place helped me to get the vegetable patch dug over.Chaffinch

I discovered to my delight that my dear neighbour Charlie is the owner of a rotovator! He was kind enough to loan it to me first thing this morning. Charlie even got it down to our place for me. I started it up and began the first few runs. I was quickly out of breath and tired. Those things are heavy and I have never had much in the way of upper body strength. I asked for assistance and it was given! So, though there is some raking to do, the ground is tilled! Yippee!! The weeds and grasses that were hauled out of the garden were thrown into the hen run. The chickens loved that! Siskin

There was a hard frost last night and it is a sharp reminder that we live in the far north. Nothing tender should venture outside the protection of the greenhouse until the end of May. A few warm dry days would tempt an impatient gardener to risk it, but don't.Goldfinch

I loved being out in the greenhouses early in the morning. I was out there watering a few seedlings and sipping my tea and I heard a buzzard scream. I looked and directly above me way up high a buzzard was circling. I know that it won't go for my hens when they're in their run so I just enjoyed watching it surf the air currents. Perhaps it is the same buzzard that was bold enough to sit by our pond a few weeks ago. I heard a curlew cry down by the burn and in the distance there was a woodpecker drumming. I felt that all was right with the world.

We've had a good week for birds here at the house. Our swallows came back today. I hope they enjoyed their stay in Africa and are ready to get busy. The last big storm knocked the swallow nest off so they'll have to rebuild. We will also have to be extra careful and keep the shed door shut. Swallows will nest in there if given half a chance.

Last week I had a new sighting at the bird feeder. I always get excited when I see something new. I couldn't figure out what the bird was that looked like a striped version of a sparrow.I managed these two blurred photos and sent them to Dean from Dean's Daily Diary (formerly Mostly Macro). From this flimsy documentation he helped me to identify the bird as a reed bunting! It thrilled my nerdy little heart. It's a new one to my life list. Thanks for the help Dean!

Here is a list of the birds that have been seen by me here at Whitelees in the past seven days:

Swallow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Blue tit
Great tit
Coal tit
Siskin
Mourning dove
Wood pigeon
Blackbird
Mistle thrush
House sparrow
Reed bunting (!)
Robin
Wren
Buzzard
Lapwing
Crow
Jackdaw
Pheasant
Curlew
Starling
Great spotted woodpecker
Canda goose (flew over in a big V)

I'm glad the garden is dug over as the forecast for tomorrow is drizzle (of course). The garden tools are safely stored and I am all set for the next burst of good weather to start putting some hardy things out in the garden to grow.

Do Over!

I have reported or rather complained over the years about our wet summers. It seems that as soon as I started this blog, weather in this part of the world, in particular the summers have been rubbish. Every year I forget the disappointments of the previous season and I dig over the garden and plant it up.

Last summer was the worst yet. It never stopped raining. Three non-rainy days together was rare. In addition to the resident humans getting quite fed up, things in the garden suffered from all sorts of damp induced infections. The potato crop was hideous with blight taking the bulk of it. Apple scab on the six apples, black spot on the roses and some sort of scab/black spot type infection on the cherry tree. The wettest summer on record (it was official) was followed by a particularly cold winter. I've experienced colder winters in the states of North Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa but this was a cold winter for here. Remember that frozen drain? The winter killed off things that would normally make it through a Scottish winter. The fuchsias haven't made it and my dear old rosemary died. I liked that rosemary. I had started to get smug about its age and was starting to think that it was actually be hardier than ordinary rosemary. Here it is in the terracotta pot - it is truly dead - not a bit of green anywhere in the stems. photo of the same rosemary plant in May 2007

It had such lovely little blue flowers . . . . I bought a new little baby rosemary plant. With this new plant I am calling, "do over"! I've sprayed the roses and fruit trees with bordeaux mixture (copper sulfate) to fight the assorted blights and I'm giving potatoes a wide berth for a while as the soil in the vegetable patch is now officially infected for a number of years. I've cleared away the twigs from what remains of the crown of rhubarb. I've never seen rhubarb look so anaemic. I know that rhubarb can make it through a hard winter, but a hard winter following a poor summer has taken its toll. I have vowed that if this little crown (and it is only two years old) survives, I will not harvest any of it this year. It needs a year just to grow and get better.The standard fuchsia has died too. To tell the truth, I've never been good at getting a standard fuchsia to overwinter. I was advised to lay it on its side in the greenhouse and it would come through okay. Well it didn't. I suspect it needed to be in a heated greenhouse. I've still got the nice frost resistant blue pot. I'll try to get another and try again. You can see that my little greenhouse is up and working again (with such clean glass). The tomatoes are on the right in the red grow-bags and there is a lone cucumber plant at the top of the photo in another grow-bag. Just out of shot are the grow-bags that I shall grow basil and coriander (cilantro). I'm waiting for a nice hot day to sow the seed. Basil loves heat and sulks in cool weather. From now on, the door to this greenhouse will have to be kept shut. Sure, they look innocent enough, but these gals will SHRED unguarded greenhouses and indeed vegetable patches.

The chickens got into the greenhouse last year and riped the grow-bags to shreds trying to give themselves dust baths in the compost. It caused compost to go flying in all directions and I had to dig it out from between the glass and greenhouse frame when cleaning up earlier in the spring.
As I was so fed up with the weather and lack of sun by July last year, I sort of let the vegetable patch go. The result is that I've got plenty of weeds and grass to dig out before I can finish planting. While digging yesterday I found a handful of non-blighted potatoes. It was a little late gift from the garden.The other gift is this lovely flower bud on the lilac. It had no flowers last year. I attributed this to the lack of light. With even less light last year, I didn't expect to see any flower buds again this year but I was wrong! I'll have one! I look forward to the time when this little lilac shrub is a vigorous thug and produces armfuls of flowers. In the meantime, that little baby rosemary plant smells like the promise of summer. I feel like we will have a hot and sunny weather this year. I'll have beautiful beefsteak tomatoes. Homemade pesto with the basil I have grown . . . . curries will be made better with the aromatic coriander fresh from the greenhouse. I'll have sweet peas filling every vase and jar in the house. Courgettes and beans will be so plentiful that I'll have to give them away to neighbours. Roll on good weather!! I am ready!

Blue Sky and Volcanoes.

Blue skies over us! It is as rare as it is beautiful. The lack of vapour trails overhead is especially nice. We live underneath the major route from the UK to North America. This was a problem for us once when Panam Flight 103 was blown out of the sky and onto neighbouring farms. It happened years before we moved here, but the debris trail fell across our place. One of our neighbours ended up having to get his first passport as he was called to give evidence in Utrecht during the trial. He was comforted by the fact that when he wasn't giving evidence, the beer world class.

Flights from London to Scottish airports fly over us as well. They're too high up for the sound to bother us, but the sky (when it isn't obscured by cloud) is crosshatched with the vapour trails of the jets.

It is worrying that some think that the airline industry is being too cautious. Around here, the general feeling is that you can't be too cautious with safety. If there is volcanic ash in the air, don't fly. Ash turns to glass in the heat of a turbine engine and clogs important things in there. It will blast the windscreen glass to a lovely frosted effect. Nice when you're reglazing a bathroom but a bit rubbish for pilots that want to see to fly a plane full of passengers.Met Office map of the ash on 17 April 2010

The thing that worries me is the length of the eruption. Any Hawaiian will happily tell you that Kilauea's latest eruption began in 1983 and is still going! Kilauea is a different sort of volcano and has the courtesy to be the lava oozing variety rather than the ash spewing sort or the murderous pyroclastic explosion sort. We really cannot predict when a volcano will erupt and once it starts, there is no way to predict when the eruption will finish. It is very inconvenient to travellers stuck away from home. It can be crippling to business but this is a little wake up call from our beautiful blue planet. IT is in charge, not us.

Did you know that Naples is not only the current home of my dear cousin Carey who is stuck in Paris with her two sons because of Iceland's volcanic ash? I predict that she and the guys will be able to get a train from The City of Light to her home. She's resourceful and bright and will figure it out. Naples is also sitting on a big bubble of magma. Steps keep have to be added to the stairs going down to the sea at the port. It isn't that the Mediterranean is sinking, the port is lifting. I liken it to a big pimple, one of those nasty deep underground ones that take forever to come to a head and runs the risk of leaving a scar when it finally blows. Some day soon Vesuvius (in geological terms) it's going to pop. Vesuvius has been the nasty exploding, pyroclastic flow sort of volcano in the past. We have Pompeii as the evidence of what can happen if we remain ignorant or choose to ignore the earth's power. Incidentally, the last time Vesuvius had an eruption was 1944. A young British private in the Green Howards who was to later become my father-in-law was in Italy, saw it happen.

I have just heard that Scottish airports are open for a few hours. I do not envy the person who gets to say who and what goes first and what must wait until next time. While all of that happens, I'm going to walk the dog and then plant some flowers in the garden.

When Chickens Go Bad

Do you remember that shot in Jurassic Park where the velociraptor is looking through the window and it exhales and the breath steams up the window a bit . . . . the exact same thing happened this morning with one of my hens. I wish I had been quicker with the camera so that you could see. Ok, so she doesn't hold the same menace as a velociraptor but she tried real hard.The hens were out this morning. I must not have wired the door to the chicken run tightly enough. If the door to the run isn't wired well, Polly our resident hound will push her way in to the run to see if there are any good kitchen scraps to be had. The hens then have a means of escape and will roam the place. Free range hens can wreck havoc on a garden so I don't let them be out of their run for long. This particular lot of hens are very tame. If they see me, they'll come running. One can just image them saying "Oh, there she is!" They will then stand by my feet (in what I take to be adoration). All I have to do is to walk into the run and they will follow. Any that fail to follow me can just be picked up later and tossed in. I don't have to chase these birds or trick or bribe them into the run. It's great! All chickens should behave like this.
As the days are growing longer the hens have gone into high egg production. I have given all I can to my neighbours and still have this bounty remaining. Brioche takes seven eggs . . . . . I can use a dozen egg whites in an Angel food cake . . . . custard . .. . mayonnaise. I'll have eight more eggs tomorrow. I may pickle some.

Here is what else is in the garden this fine spring morning: PeriwinkleMy favourite daffodils are blooming near the mailbox. They are my favourites as they are the most beautiful and delicate shade of yellow.A freshly mowed lawn - the barrow of clippings still to go into the chicken run. The lawn looks good from this angle. Another view shows the scars left by the visiting moles. A little lawn seed should fix this just fine. ForsythiaMy lovely rose var Elizabeth has sprouted leaves.
Parsley is hardy! It self-seeds in the gravel on the south side of the house. It's the extra tasty Italian flat leaf variety so we leave it alone. On a sad note, a pot of rosemary didn't make it through the winter. It is brown and withered in its pot. It was a couple of years old too. I guess I'll need a new plant.

So, that is what is going on in the garden this fine spring morning. I guess I'll get another cup of tea and go "do some stuff". See ya later!

It Might Be Spring!

On Saturday two of my good friends, Margaret and Elaine came out to the house. It was a gorgeous day to get out and stretch the legs with my pals. We went on one of my favourite walks, the duck ponds. I haven't been up to the ponds since we had all that snow. There was so much evidence of spring . . . starting with the new lambs in the fields.Toads copulating in puddles, in the grass . . . . everywhere really.
With all the prey around there will be predators. Lots of badger prints in the soft mud.
One can make out the marks that the badger's formidable claws make in the soft mud. The badger set that is up there must be getting bigger, there were lots of tracks around. There were deer tracks in the mud as well. I haven't seen the big buck tracks in the mud just yet but he's around (or at least he was here in October) as there were dainty fawn tracks next to the adult female tracks.
We saw this deer in the distance as we rounded the bend. The three of us and my bouncy dog got quite close before it ambled off into the trees. I think it knew it was in no real danger from us. I got this photo and enlarged it a bit so that you could see it more clearly.

Cleaning the greenhouses today and yesterday, I came across a lone ladybug, a white butterfly and a couple of bumblebees. The greenhouses are especially dirty this spring. I wish I had self-cleaning greenhouse glass as there is a lot of algae on the glass this year.

We had a huge wasp show up in the house. It buzzed along on the inside of one of the windows until The Man of the Place swatted it with a rolled up newspaper.
The daffodils are starting to bloom . . . I guess it can safely be said that winter is over!

Running

The only way to loose weight is to burn off more calories than one consumes. I know that. For years I have been monitoring what I eat, counting calories and counting Weight Watcher points (another form of calorie counting). I've been doing okay. I lost some weight last year and until recently when I lost my job, I've kept it off.

The weight is creeping back on. We don't have a lot of junk food in the house - in fact, very little junk food in the house. I just have unfettered access to my oven and a LOT of time on my hands. I've been doing a lot of sitting in front of the computer with the job hunt. So, yesterday I started running.

I don't know if the few hundred meters I ran yesterday and today would really count as a proper run, but I was out of breath and my heart rate was increased. It's a start.

I could do with some improved lung function, improved resting heart rate, and weight loss so I am going to try to get out and run every day. I'm starting with short distances. When I can manage these short distances without gasping for air, I'll lengthen the distance.

Polly loves the faster paced dog walk. She thinks the improved speed is fantastic.

I have stepped on the scales and dragged out the measuring tape. I'm not going to tell you what I weigh or how big around the various measurements are . . . .that info is for my eyes only. I will however let you know if these measurements change.

My first goal is to get to my neighbour's place and back. Baby steps people baby steps!

Siskins

We've been having nice weather today. There has been a bit of sun, no wind and mild temperatures. The bird table has seen some action. In fact, I think I'll have to refill things over there tomorrow morning.
The peanuts were the big favourite today. We had a couple of siskins visit. They're pretty little birds. They remind me a bit of the winter version of American goldfinches.

Knowing When to Quit

The large houseplant - Jade plant or Crassula ovata - that I had taken from my neighbour is gone. It really was too far gone.It spent the first couple of days in my house dropping it's shrivelling leaves across the tiles. Any time a person walked by they ran the risk of snapping more leaves or even small branches off this poor plant. I gave it a trim, cutting back all the shrivelled succulent branches. There was a BIT of hope. One branch was not shrivelled and the four leaves that clung to it were quite healthy looking. There were even signs that new leaves were forming at that spot. In the end it was a huge plant with four leaves on it. I didn't want to wait more months to see if it would sprout from other areas and I took the decision to chuck it out.
I am glad of the decision I made. If I had some nostalgic or sentimental reason for keeping it, I would have kept it alive and indeed brought it back from the brink. But there was none of that, so out it went! The plant isn't gone completely, I had a cutting from this plant a few years ago when it was in its full and vibrant glory. This scion is growing away quite well and will soon reach the size that the parent plant was.

I am glad that the jade plant is gone. It took up a lot of space and was quite ugly. The space vacated by the old rescue plant was very quickly filled. A new rescue plant has taken its place this week. It is commonly called a Cheese Plant - after Swiss Cheese due to the holes in the leaves - Monstera deliciosa.

This beauty was sharing office space with The Man of the Place. When he was told that he was moving his office to another floor, this neglected specimen was left alone . . .It got sparing amounts of attention and from the rootbound looks of things, I bet it has been sitting in the same soil for well over a decade.

I took it out of the pot, knocked out some of the potting soil. The old potting soil didn't smell all that fresh and a bit moldy. I suspect that the plant had been overwatered and the soil allowed to get rank at one point. New potting soil was put in the bottom of the pot and more new material went on top of the root ball. The soil on the top of the root ball will work its way down as I water it.
As it is a very large plant, maneuvering it out of its pot was a very physical job. I managed to snap a bit of it off (Sorry plant!). The bit that snapped off had a number of arial roots and I've just potted it up using the pot from the recently vacated jade plant. With all the new soil, regular care and lots of sun, this new specimen will flourish! I'm really looking forward to seeing some new leaves.