July

by Ken Clark - 08:37 on 13 July 2009

Ken’s Nature notes.

Two Collared Doves have hatched out successfully from the nest in our garden, thankfully they have all flown away to pastures new, it is nice and quiet again.
Blossoms have transformed into fruit production, Hawthorns, Cherries and Apples seemed to be on target for another good harvest. Tried the usual gooseberry  bush that grows in the hedgerow of one of my walks, I decided to squeeze the gooseberry to sample the fruit juices instead of consuming the whole fruit, this proved to be a good method of tasting the berry without the tough casing; very tasty. The very dark cherries are the ones to try a tasting of and very pleasant they are. It must be a great treat for the Blackbirds and Starlings that seem to be devouring these fruits, tell tale signs are the stones or seed that are left behind on the ground.
A lovely sighting of the Kingfisher cheered me up last Friday as we were clearing the overgrown footpath from the Floaters Mill pub up stream. I would love to be able to photograph this beautiful bird but it is so allusive, all you get is a flash of brilliant blue as it fly’s down stream. How on earth does any one become lucky enough to see a one perched and have a camera with them is beyond me. I suppose carrying the camera with me at all time is a good start.
There are still plenty of purple blooms about in the woods, the wild geraniums or cranesbills are giving a splendid show at the moment.
I have just finished my summer holidays, one of the jobs to catch up on was our garden, new shed having been rebuilt I forged ahead with my sharpened sickle to discover where my footpaths had gone. The green wheelie bin has been a blessing, main culprit in my hidden paths are the geraniums, after having been flowering  so well, then the heavy rain that we have been experiencing lately had flattened them, so some drastic action was required. First blood was soon drawn on my left index finger; I was now wondering whether I should have had the blade so sharp?
Undaunted and a couple of hours later with a full wheelie bin we were ready to open up to the public! (In your dreams) I still have the honeysuckle to tackle next time when the bin is empty again.
If you get a chance to walk the path behind the Cricket Club you will be rewarded by the Field Poppies growing what seems to be in competition with each other to see who has the darkest red petals. As usual try to get poppies to grow where you would like them to be and you seemed doomed to failure; however do nothing and they flourish.
I am still in awe how light it is even at 10pm, as I notice the snails milling about on the damp paths, any Thrushes could have a field day with an evening of escargot al a path.
The allotments are now ready for some TLC. weeds are now dominating much of the tree nursery, we were due to have a weeding session a couple of weeks ago but we had one of our Summer thunder storms which didn’t help one bit so we cancelled, however later this month we will be back armed with trowels and wine glasses, well you have to relax after a little bit of hard graft.

Ken.

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