Evening Skies

During the last few months we have viewed some beautiful gold and red sunsets from the hill



 I have managed to capture birds in the middle of the above photograph flying south west - the four dark dots.  As autumn is approaching we are noticing many groups of birds flying south west.

 



Finally, the moon; the parish lantern.

Nature's Perfume

The perfume of the wisteria was so strong on the warm sunny day when I took these photographs last week that I just wanted to sit beneath it all day to enjoy the sun and the scent.

The wisteria was also enjoyed by honey bees (my bees I trust) and bumble bees. The bees have waited so long for some warm sunny days and flowers for pollen and nectar.

The colour of the flowers is beautiful.

What more can a girl want? 

Sun, scent and a beautiful colour to be remembered.

Pheasant - Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

I have lost the plot.  I had lots to do today, a cake to bake and ice for a coffee morning tomorrow, housework and the weeding of a very overgrown border in the garden and I have found myself grinding up peanuts to feed a male pheasant which is quite capable of looking for food itself now the weather is milder.  Pheasants have decimated sections of my garden, eating the growing shoots of plants and I don't look too kindly on them.


Drawing from RSPB Website

 Pheasants make a regular appearance around A Worcestershire Hill.  At the moment we have one male who we have named Boris.  We name all the male pheasants Boris, why, I don't know, it just seemed to happen.  Sometimes we have Boris 1, 2, 3 and 4, depending how many male pheasants are around.  Female pheasants don't get named for some reason.  Maybe that is because they do not stay around long enough.

We had a lot of heavy rain yesterday and Boris looked very bedraggled and sorry for himself.  My partner decided to feed him peanuts which had been ground up for the small birds which do not use the bird feeder and then he left for work stating that he had give Boris all the bird food that was left.  That is when I lost the plot and starting grinding up peanuts for a pheasant.

I had a walk around the paddock next to the house which has not had any sheep grazing on it for some years.  The sheep ate nearly everything, grasses and many of the flowers, but since they have left the flowers have thrived. 

Earlier in the year there were many primroses on a bank which have now died back. 

Now there are a few bluebells and if you look very closely you will just see the edge of a honey bee inside one of the bells.

Celendines always put on a bright show in the sun, although I don't want them in the garden as they will spread and I will never be able to remove them.

Ladies smock looking so delicate in pale lilac

and apple blossom with its early promise of fruit in the autumn

Cowslips - which remind me of the cowslip filled field at the entrance to a farm in Yorkshire which I visited many times as a child.  I called it cowslip farm as did my mother when she was a child living in the village.

I grew some cowslips from seed for the garden a few years ago and they have spread around the garden and, it appears, into the paddock. 

And the last of the Narcissus  I always look forward to these after all the yellow Narcissus have ceased flowering.  These have been planted by a previous owner of the paddock.

There will be many wild flowers to come and I always find it interesting to see what has appeared in the paddock once again now the sheep are not eating nearly everything.

 

Cleaning the Mixing Bowl

Three score years and sixteen and you are never too old to stop what you are doing and come into the house to scrape out the remains of the  uncooked cake mixture from the mixing bowl. 

The cooked cake was not too bad either.

Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet and Watch

Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet and Watch – that is what my partner used to say when we were going out for the evening, checking he had all four!  Well I have the latter two, I don’t need the second, but where had I put my reading spectacles?

 

I searched all the places I thought I could have left them, the table where I keep the books I am currently reading – no.  The kitchen table where I had been reading about rearing queen honey bees, my book shelves of cookery and gardening books, my computer table, again no sign of them. 

I looked on the seat where I had sat in the garden sunning myself, the greenhouse amongst the runner beans, sweet corn, broad beans, peas and the other vegetables I am raising.  Nothing.

I gave up and went about Monday morning’s recovering from the weekend cleaning  when suddenly I had a light bulb moment; I had sat on the wall yesterday watching my honey bees going in and out of the hives in the sunshine through a pair of binoculars and yes, that was where I had left my spectacles. 

I don’t think the fox or badger had tried them on and they were a bit too small for the deer I saw near the house last week.

I am lost without my reading spectacles although I do keep two pairs, this dates from when I was working, one pair in my handbag and the other pair in the house. 



Spring?

Spring?  It did happen last week. 

At the side of some steps we were about to climb in a local park I spotted a blackbird feeding a youngster.

There has been some wonderful blossom around A Worcestershire Hill in orchards, gardens and hedgerows, although some of it has passed over so quickly, such as the cherries in a neighbour's windy garden.

Travelling along a lane today I passed several apply trees in the hedgerow showing some beautiful apple blossom.  I tried to take some photographs which was difficult standing in the middle of the lane in the rain.  If we do get some sunshine I will try and get a better photograph.

I have made a mental note of where the blackthorn and damson trees are in the hedgerows so that I can collect the fruit in the autumn for sloe gin or vodka and damson jam or chutney.  Hopefully the trees will have been pollinated and there will be a good harvest.