Catching up

The collared doves have successfully hatched and raised two chicks. This picture was taken a couple of days ago, but the chicks left the nest today. Theyr'e currently sat looking a bit miserable on next door's pergola.

The nice weather has meant plenty of walks with the hound and pottering in the garden - I've also recently taken on an allotment, but more of that at a later date.

Highlight of a recent early morning walk was coming face to face with a fox family - a vixen and two cubs. Of course, it was sod's law that I had just put the macro (close-up) lens on my camera, so the shots I got of the two cubs - mum saw me first and did a runner - are a bit crappy.

The cub in the the foreground was obviously a bit confused when mum disappeared and, for a moment, I think it thought J was its mother and came bounding towards us. It then realised its mum was not black and white and would probably not be straining at the end of a lead (just a reminder that J is half foxhound!).

On the same walk, we came across this man-made rainbow. The colours and patterns changed as the crop sprayer swivelled around. I was quite mesmerised and stopped to watch for quite a while.

Not too far away is a turf farm, which has this run of power cables crossing it. I pass it quite regularly and I've noticed that the poles have started to lean more and more - I don't think I'd want to have to rely on these for my electricity supply. A decent gale in the winter and they'll be over.

Couple more pictures from recent walks - I love the straight lines created by farming and some of the smallest, most insignificant flowers can be beautiful when studied closely.

Finally, for now, a rose in my garden, backlit by the sun.

Kill!

When you have a pet cat, you don't expect to have mice in the house.

When you have a pet terrier, you don't expect to have rats under the shed.

When you have a toad, you don't expect slugs among the lettuce.

We have a cat, but no mice, we have a Jack Russell, but no rats, we have a toad . . . and millions of bleedin' slugs. The thing is simply not earning his keep If he can't manage on his own, he needs to get some of his mates in, 'cos I'm losing the battle against slugs and snails.

Actually, we've all got a bit of a soft spot for the toad which, surprisingly for this family, does not have a name yet (I feel an online competition coming on!). He lives under a couple of lengths of wood which I desperately want to move out of the way, but I can't bring myself to disturb him.

Apart from unwanted invertabrates, he's the only real wildlife in the garden - that's the problem with more or less creating a new garden from scratch with a very low budget, there's not really much cover or food for wildlife. In a couple of years, things will be different, but until then, we will have to make do with our lazy toad.

Up until this weekend, the only goodies offered up by the garden have been various types of salad leaves and one or two strawberries that have escaped the notice of the snails. But on Sunday I dug up the first of the potatoes (not many per plant but very tasty), pulled a few carrots (again, not big but very sweet) and cut the first courgette.

The runner beans won't be long now and the tomatoes have started to form - it's not exactly the good life and we won't be self-sufficient in anything but lettuce (plot too small), but it's quite satisfying to be producing something.

The flower beds are still looking good in places - especially if you ignore the big expanses of bare earth between the plants. I like to think of myself as being like a mum who buys her kids clothes that are too big, saying 'he'll soon grow into it'. I say to myself that the plants will soon grow into the spaces.

Smoke and mirrors . . .

I've learned that close up pictures can hide a multitude of sins.

My garden at the moment is looking okay, but has not yet fully recovered from the battering it received from the dogs over the winter. There's also plenty of gaps waiting to be filled when I can afford the plants.

The vegetable patch, too, is also so-so. There have been germination issues this year!

But, like I say, close up, there's some nice flowers and plants. Here's a very short slideshow highlighting some of the best bits. Not quite Chelsea, but there you go.

My big dilemma at the moment is what tree to plant in the back garden. I want something with the shape of a silver birch, with a light, airy canopy, but I don't really want it to go above 5 or 6 metres. Anyone got any ideas. (I don't really want an ornamental cherry!)

Garden woes

The garden has left me a bit demoralised - it has taken such a battering from the weather and from the dogs. I had high hopes of the flowers, but although everything I planted came up, they were badly trampled by the animals - despite my pleading to the family not to let them out unless supervised. This lone sunflower sums it up really . . . desperately trying its best to brighten up the garden, but not quite succeeding.

There has been some success on the produce side, for a first attempt anyway. The tomatoes have been attacked by blight and the wind and rain, but we've had some fruit. Garden Pearl (below) has been most successful. The runner beans have cropped really heavily, the dwarf beans okay, the carrots okay and we're getting a bit fed up with courgettes.

The cucumbers have been a bit of a mixed bag - some tasting really sweet others being bitter. The beetroot (only one row because I hate them) have not grown very big, but Mrs DW says they have been very nice.

Onions patchy, parsnips useless (only a few germinated), strawberries nice and sweet but few and far between. The lettuce started off really successfully, especially the cut and come again variety, but my attempts to have a succession of lettuce to eat have been devastated by the plague of slugs and snails which I've been powerless to stop.

The apple tree has looked full of fruit, but they are very small (probably due to the dry spring).

The chillies now look edible, but we haven't tried them yet.

Finally a bit of colour - a cosmos, I think.

Change is as good as a rest

I've been blogging elsewhere for the last year or so and thought it might be an idea to try a different 'host'.

I've had a weekend of pottering around in the garden and doing a few chores - washing the kitchen floor, vacuuming my car etc . . . life in the fast lane!

I did take a few pictures in the garden yesterday.