Summer in the garden with Cap and Kay
THE WALLED GARDEN is there for the future, but in the meantime our
own garden just blooms and blooms, sometimes with unwanted guests
but mainly with just what’s there and what we have put in.
The plum tree is heavily laden with ripening fruit after a thin season
last year. Even now it looks delicious
I am reliably informed that many goodies can be made including jam,
chutney, pie filling and, yum, yum, a pudding with ice cream. Unwisely
I ask which goodies will we be getting and back comes the prompt reply,
“wait and see.” So there.
What a difference a day (and a few more) makes: the plum tree on 1st April
Top of the list for unwanted guests must be the sycamore which is a
fine tree when it stands alone. But marching like a legion across the garden it tests my love of trees to the limit.
I give them the order of the chop. Unfortunately the leaves of the
sycamore at crowded ground level are not unlike those of the Japanese anemone. Oh dear, oh dear, what a row. . .
Other very welcome guests are this Summer’s butterflies and it was time
to do Butterfly Conservation’s garden butterfly count. They must, I thought, come in droves (what is the group name for butterflies?) to the blooming buddleia.
But the wind on most days proved too much for their fragile flying and
nothing appeared in the 15 minute time frames for counting. But there
were the occasional visitors: Small and Large Whites, Green-veined
Whites, Small Tortoiseshells and Red Admirals. I hope they keep coming.
Creatures of the night also paid their visits. They brought their sinister
names with them: a Dark Arches on the inside of my tool shed door and a Grey Dagger on the white wall of the house. Both perfectly formed beauties.
Look behind you: the Dark Arches moth
Mack the Knife: the Grey Dagger Moth
Summer slowly changes to another season and the Swifts, a true African bird, fatten up in the skys over Dysart Road for their long, homeward flight while two raggedy crows sit quietly on my neighbour’s roof suffering their seasonal moult.
Now where are my plum goodies . . . Dropping day is near: the plum tree on 31st July
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