Sunday, March 16, 2008

Garden Birds And Country Wines

I have one more night left before I can sleep, then get up to try to clear some more of the allotment.It has rained every day so far, so I will be wallowing in mud. The temperature has fallen again so it will be cold and wet.I hope April brings warmer weather to warm the soil up.
The other day the Collared Doves returned. These two are like little and large, the Blue Tit and the Collared Dove on the fence..

I now have two Robins who come into the garden throughout the day. A small one, and a plumper one.Im guessing the Plump one has been feeding since December in the Garden.The Garden is on the birds tour of the neighbourhood. They come and go almost every hour for a snack. They are spoilt by choice with sunflower seeds, peanut kernels, bird seed mix, and fatballs.They often sit on the outside branches of the Privet and wait for five minutes, deciding what is best to eat.Its true in restaurants the bigger the Menu the harder it is to choose sometimes!

The acrobatic Blue Tit examining the fatballs on the fence post.I have been rotating the food between the posts.Next week I will add further posts on the other side of the garden so I can keep them guessing where the food is.They watch me in the garden, then come out when I'm sat in the kitchen watching from the blue chair.
I planted some Beetroot seed two days ago in a mini propogator. The seedlings have come up now, with flourescent pink stems and almost orange leaves. Hil's wants me to grow lots so she can make Beetroot chutney.
I am thinking of all the country wines I can make this year from my soft fruit.The allotment has masses of Brambles..so thats Blackberry (the garden fruit bush is going to be relocated to the sunny allotment as it is not doing well alongside the Viburnum), Strawberrys, Raspberrys (the Bush is growing really well in the right hand border), and maybe Blueberrys..
I have fifty demijohns now in the cellar.I just need about four pounds weight worth of soft fruits to start the wines off.
Once they are matured I will give them away as I rarely drink alcohol!I will have to collect dandelions too from near Frans house for more Dandelion wine.
The other seed are planted were some Carex Comans Bronze, a reddish/brown Carex grass to compliment the green and yellow ones I have already, and the Black mondo grasses.
The grasses give the garden movement and soft noise!
The garden birds always relax me, watching their frenetic activity and listening to their songs as they sing throughout the day.I hope to watch them next week when I'm not knee deep in mud or planting seeds, or potting up seedlings!
I hope all your weekends have been nice wherever you garden.

4 comments:

thepowerguides said...

It looks pretty bad there as well here in wonderfull WI we still have some snow on the ground so we have a while before we are left with mud piles everywhere , I just checked and they are saying we have 5 inches of frozen rain in the ground even after the snow melts so a fair way behind you

best of luck with your mud piles though and I love your fox picture when I visit reminds me of home

steve

Unknown said...

Mmmm...dandelion wine, I haven't had it for years, but it's liquid summer when made right. and of course I love the Ray Bradbury book by the same name.
Getting anxious for spring, now....just to greet the dandelions as bee-fodder makes me happy.

Anonymous said...

So sweet......

David (Snappy) said...

Thanks Powerguides,I bet you cant wait for the Snow to melt and spring to come.Where was your home originally then?I got the fox image from google,I still have not photographed a live fox here in Wakefield.They tell me that they run around the hospital grounds at night where I work and peer into the windows at the back of the wards!
Hi Jodi,I never had any before I tried making some.It was quite difficult to find a good recipie too.The older generation seemed not to have passed on the how to information.I have seen a few Dandelions but they are waiting for it to warm up first I think.They are one of my favourite wildflowers, like old friends who visit twice a year..in April and September!