30 Days Wild : Days 15 to 21

A full on week of working in the garden this, getting it ready for my family - who volunteered to help - to come over and do some of the bigger jobs! Plenty of time outdoors but not so many photos taken. The garden looked completely different by the end of the week!

Before setting to work on the garden again, I had a lovely drive over the hills to Whaley Bridge (I had to collect a few things) and enjoyed the views.  Then there were some nice clouds in the evening which I noticed as I was finishing up in the garden.

Working in the garden again on day 16... Met a moth, think it's a bright line brown eye but please correct me if I'm wrong. Not enjoying the heat, there has been very little in the way of rain and thunder here yet everyone else seems to be getting it!

Another day in the garden! Spent a large chunk of the day attempting to dig out a big tree stump with a trowel 😂 I can't manage a spade at the moment but I made good progress with that trowel and then with a saw, a crowbar and a bit of help to lever it, I got several roots out. I worked into the evening again and enjoyed a few rumble of thunder and a rain shower. I was looking at rain drops in the elder and noticed a flower had fallen and wedged between leaves. (bottom left in the middle photo below).

Day 18 was a very wet day. I spent some time in the rain just getting soaked and watching a worm and a slug on the move. Bulk delivery of gravel today to finish the patio so went out this evening when the rain eases up to start laying a bit of it and was treated to a few minutes of lovely light.

More digging out tree stump on day 19. I had the company of the blackbird who has been getting braver by the day to take advantage of the rich worm pickings as a result of my digging! Accidentally disturbed this frog/leafhopper nymph, so relocated him to a safe spot to blow another bubble home. 

On day 20, I should have been in Coventry to see Rammstein again, but that was postponed until next June, which I was happy about as it turned out this wasn't the best timing for it really for me personally.  This meant I was able to have my garden workers in today and we did an 11 hour day getting things done! 

We built a raised planter to tidy up a border down on side of the garden (there are laurels planted in it, which I don't like, but they were there when I bought the house and my neighbour likes a low hedge so I'm keeping them and growing them for privacy for now). Also finally got rid of the big old tree stump and put a pond in, rediscovered the garden path and re-laid it and made plans for the next steps in the garden. The main objective of this day was originally just the building a habitat wall out of all the bricks, rubble and stone unearthed from this garden. I bought the terracotta pipes and facing bricks but the rest was just using up rubbish. The wall looks really good too - much better than I expected 😂 will share photos at some point. Everything else we did was the result of my dad getting a bit keen and saying he'd box in my laurels and between us we could soon get the pond in so the day kind of spiralled from the initial plan and my garden is looking completely different now. I'm really happy about that. I shouldn't have had time this year with working full time March to July then other demands on my time after that so I'm very happy that lockdown has given my family so much time - we've all been getting busy in the gardens or ticking longstanding jobs on the list and the timing on this garden work for me was perfect!   There's still a lot to do, but the progress we've made over the last couple of weeks is incredible and that provides just the boost needed to continue!

Day 21 was father's day so I visited Ma & Pa. and spent time in their garden - usual fayre of checking the pond, watching the bees, checking the veg patches and saying hello to the chickens. Today I also sampled the first (and only) ripe strawberry, which was very good.

Day 20 - A Little Vapourer Caterpillar

Eleven months ago, I found some vapourer moth eggs in the garden. I took them off the fence they were on and kept the eggs captive, but still outdoors in the garden, over winter and as soon as spring came, I checked on them regularly for signs of hatching.  Nothing happened until May and then I noticed one egg case was broken open (no sign of the caterpillar though) so I returned the eggs to my own garden and left them securely close to where the were laid - I intended to keep checking them, but was so busy finishing off and moving in, I just kept forgetting. 

Today, my Pa came to do a few jobs for me and whilst we were outside, doing a job in the garden, I happened to spot this on on of the laurels...

A very small vapourer caterpillar, which I'm sure must be one of 'mine'! I looked for others but could only find this one (though there's plenty of places they can have scattered themselves I guess).

This one was still munching through the leaf at dusk. 


On Day 20 last year, I harvested some seeds for future use. In 2016 spotted insects and froglets in the garden and in 2015 I visited The Deep and saw the sea.

Wild October : Day 8

A few minutes in the garden this morning - I sat on the ground by the roses and ate a late breakfast, enjoying the scent from all the falling rose petals and looking out for bugs (I only saw one wasp and a couple of flies).

Then I spent the day cleaning out the turtle tank, which is a big job. At the point at which the job was nearly done, when the filter was reconnected, it died completely (can't complain though after five and a half years of it working 24/7) so I then had to get on google and find an aquatic centre within driving distance who had the right filter in stock - I found one shop with a filter in stock! So, I lost a load of time going to pick that up which ate into any remaining time I'd have had to go outside - it was then dark by the time I'd finished the clean out! On my way to the aquatics place though, I had to walk past a row of terraced houses and I noticed a plume moth sitting on the window of one...

Barnack Hills and Holes

I travelled to Stamford on Thursday to spend a few days staying in a great little cottage in order to visit Birdfair and a few other places.

Before checking in, I spent a couple of hours revisiting Barnack Hills and Holes. I've only ever been here in August, never earlier in the year when the wildflowers are at their best (I must at some point!), but it's a great site even in August. There I saw plenty of grasshoppers and butterflies, loads of six spot burnet moths and their pupal cases and, just as I was leaving, a newly fledged wood pigeon sitting on the path! It couldn't yet fly, but did waddle over to the long grass at the base of a tree as I approached.

Arriving at my accommodation, this damselfly landed on the wall just as I got out of my car.

The cottage sits next to a paddock surrounded by a wild flower border and there were grasshoppers stridulating and green woodpeckers nearby too, the soundtrack to my stay!

Friday was the wettest day of my stay so I spent it at Birdfair. In the evening, I attended the Rewilding Britain talk, hosted by Chris Packham, which was very good.

http://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/rewilding/