My August

I can’t quite believe that it’s almost the end of summer. August for me is a time for mourning. Mourning the warmth, the lighter days and all the wonderful wildlife that visit my yarden. I’m not sure if others notice it, but there’s a slight shift in the angle of sunshine, a scent of autumn is carried on the wind, and in my yarden there is the scratchy call of hundreds of starlings eating their way through all the fat cakes I make. August is summer’s swan song and the song of the starling, is for me, the sound of autumn.

The month began by celebrating David’s birthday. He wanted to go to Leighton Moss to get to grips with his new camera. So we headed up the motorway and spent a peaceful couple of hours spotting birds and enjoying nature.

The wildlife highlight for me this month has been watching the visiting bat, Batty and their friend hunt around the yarden. One night Batty was particularly energetic, hunting moths and midges, turning summersaults in the air.

The other evening we were witness to a spectacular sunset. I tend to miss many sunsets but this one made the whole sky look like it was on fire!

In June I sowed a packet of wildflower seeds for 30 Days Wild. This month they are finally flowering. I have field marigold and camomile growing with a host of field poppies, that are attracting bumblebees and hoverflies.

During the evenings David and I have been watching some older TV shows, both I hadn’t seen before. We started the month with Ricky Gervais’s The Office and now getting through the seasons of Stargate SG1.

At present I am reading The Mabinogion, a set of Celtic Welsh tales, suggested to me by fellow blogger Charlotte Hoather.

All of the Dyfi Ospreys have embarked on their migration south. Safe travels my gorgeous Ystwyth, (Bobby Bach). I wish them all well on their travels. I don’t know why, but the leaving of these beautiful birds makes me feel sad. Another sign that summer is ending. 😦

On a day off work, I was cleaning the bird feeders when I saw a bird strike the kitchen window with a thud! I rushed out into the yarden and discovered a baby goldfinch lying on its back, still breathing. I scooped him up and put him in the hospital cage with the heat lamp on and a hot water bottle. Within half an hour he had perked up and was fluttering about the cage. So, to lessen the stress, David and I let him free. I hope he recovers from his collision. Fly free little one.

My August 2021 ends in spectacular fashion! The Airbnb we had booked for my birthday last year, (and which we had to cancel due to Covid-19 restrictions), luckily we managed to re-booked in April. Thankfully Covid-19 restrictions have eased and we have finally managed to get to this beautiful loch side cabin in Scotland!

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Well, that was my August, with a lot of wildlife sightings! How was your August? Did you get up to any adventures?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2021 – Day One.

Day 1: Today is the start of 2021’s 30 Days Wild by The Wildlife Trusts! To celebrate the first day of this nature challenge I’m took part in the Big Wild Breakfast! I took my breakfast out into the yarden to see who I would share my meal with. 

I spent an hour in the yarden listening to a blackbird and wood pigeon on the airwaves and watched with amusement as goldfinches chattered about the tree. A female hairy footed flower bee perused the red campion, while Steven the herring gull watched cautiously from the rooftop. The birds waited for me to leave before they all came into the yarden to feed. It was a pleasant beginning to a hot day!

Big Wild Breakfast

Hairy-footed flower bee

Red Campion

big breakfast1

goldfinch1

Did you participate in the Big Wild Breakfast? If so, what did you see?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine xx

My May

May 2021 has been another rather uneventful month. The weather has been horrendous, cold and wet for most, and the warm weather we have hoped for has been very sporadic.

It was our houseiversary last week. 9 years of having the keys to our lovely home! I still remember the moment I got the call to come and collect the keys to the house on the 25th. It was a hot, sunny May day in 2012. 2012 had been quite a year for me! David picked me up from my then work at the University of Liverpool before heading down to the Dock Road to collect the keys. We got home and opened the front door and stood in shock. ‘What do we do now!’ we thought. Buying a home can sometimes be rather anticlimactic but then a further year and a half of demolishing walls, an outhouse, getting a new roof and exterior doors is hard work! However it is all worth it in the end when you come home after a hard days work to your loved ones and fur/feather babies. I love my home and the life I have made with David! Long may it continue!

Last year before Covid struck and lockdowns were galore, Peter Walker’s Peace Doves were planned to be installed at Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral. I was excited to see this beautiful art installation of thousands of paper doves with messages of hope and love written on them, suspended from the vaulted ceiling. Then the exhibition was cancelled due to Covid. However there is light at the end of the tunnel. The night doesn’t last forever! This May it was announced that the Peace Doves were once again coming to Liverpool. One negative of Covid’s social distancing is that it has taken away all the spontaneity out of life, one now has to book before going anywhere. Gone were the days when you just woke up and felt like going the zoo. You now have to plan/book days in advance! Anyway, (rant over) I did mange to book tickets to see these Peace Doves. The installation was beautiful and quite moving.

The book I am reading this month, (or trying to read) is Davie Goulson’s The Garden Jungle: or Gardening to Save the Planet.

Which ties in nicely with the plants I have bought for the yarden. There were a few casualties during winter so I managed to purchase another salvia and forget-me-not plant to add to my spring flowering plants.

David and I have been watching a few films this month, most notably my favourite trilogy (save for The Lord of the Rings), How to Train your Dragon! I just love the friendship of Hiccup and Toothless. Who doesn’t love Toothless?

I have also caught up with the second season of ITV’s Innocent. The second series is based in Keswick with lovely panoramas of Derwentwater.

David managed to rescue three pigeons in one evening a few weekends ago. He captured and released one which had string around its feet and then quickly took in another two. One ailed sadly and passed away two days after but the second we managed to treat for canker and mites and she was so feisty that she had to be released and for the past few weeks now she has been visiting the yarden daily. It’s so nice to be able to help wildlife once in a while.

In the quite moments of life, I’ve been following an osprey webcam from the Dyfi Osprey Project. It’s quite stressful watching a wildlife cam, you invest so much emotion into it, however it’s been a privilege to follow the ups and downs of this osprey nest of Telyn and Idris as they raise their two young. Good luck to the two bobs!

Surprisingly, an adventure happened at the end of an uneventful May! The Spring Bank Holiday brought with it some lovely warm temperatures of over 23°C and David suggested we go on a day out. I had already decided where I wanted my first swim of 2021 to be and so on the 30th we were up at 6am on a beautiful clear, warm day and headed towards Snowdonia, Wales. We stopped off at two llyns during the day, Gwynant was my first swim of the year and Padarn the second!

May has been a quiet month, how’s your’s been?

Take care,

Christine x

My March

I don’t know about you, but March 2021 has seemed a long month to me. Though the evenings have been getting lighter there has still been a chilling nip in the air during the day. March however, is a great month to witness the start of spring, from the birds beginning to sing, to the garden finally waking up. Here are a few pictures of the unfurling plants in my yarden.

March is our anniversary month, and this year was our 15th year anniversary together. David and I celebrated it by sharing a tasty curry.

March is also the birthday month of both my mum and brother Daniel.

The 23rd of March this year was also a National Day of Remembrance. I took the time to remember my dad, Graham who we said goodbye too nine years ago on 28th March 2012.

David had a few days off work in March and we spent many of his days off by walking around Sefton Park. On one occasion, I spied a little grebe on the lake and Riley enjoyed the warm springlike sunshine.

Sadly, I’ve not done any reading this month at all!

Since I am back at work two days a week, I’ve spent the days in between by catching up on some series. I’ve been enjoying Netflix’s The Queens Gambit, ITV’s Unforgotten and David and I have both been having a laugh to SyFy’s Resident Alien.

Having been living together in our home now for the past eight years, some of the paintwork in the rooms are looking a little tired. So to make a start on the project of sprucing up the interiors we decided to paint the easiest room in the house, the bathroom. We decided on a medium grey to replace the purple we had on firstly. It only took us a few hours to do two coats of paint and the result is a fresh, cleaner, more modern looking style. What do you think?

I celebrated Earth Hour by switching off my lights for an hour on the 27th. This WWF campaign is to spread awareness of our carbon footprints. By using less light and energy this reduces harmful Co2 emissions.

I’m not sure what prompted Liverpool City Council to install 11 light art fixtures as part of their River of Light during lockdown, but in need of some stimulation, David and I with a nervous Riley in tow, spent a couple of hours walking around Liverpool’s waterfront.

It’s been a year since the UK was plunged into the first lockdown. How have you coped? It has been a struggle for many. From having too much time on your hands and the boredom and frustration that brings, to working from home and all the pressures it adds to the mental state. Finances have been hit hard and businesses have suffered. Not being able to travel and every day melding into one. It has been a long, dark year but hopefully we can recover and regain some semblance of normality in the coming months ahead.

How have you spent March? What are you most looking forward to getting back to doing?

Take care,

Christine x

Batty for Bats

Seven years ago David and I began work on creating a wildlife yarden. We focused on attracting as much wildlife to an inner city walled yard as we could.

Yarden

Bird feeders were the first and easiest addition to the yarden and during late summer/early autumn the feeders are usually awash with different coloured wings and bird calls. From chattering charms of goldfinches and the happy chirruping of sparrows to boisterous gangs of starlings. The odd blue tit is seen nervously snatching away a sunflower heart as well as two delicate greenfinches who’ve visited among with the goldfinches. All this activity has caught the eye of several sparrowhawks whose presence in the yarden is a wondrous sight to behold.

Goldfinches Picture by David Evans

Starling Picture by David Evans

Female Sparrowhawk

About three years ago we put in a wash bowl pond. It’s in a sheltered spot so we don’t have dragonflies or damsels visiting but we did have a little frog for a short while.

Frog

Pond

Over the years we have planted shrubs and herbs which flower at different times of the year to attract insects. We even have the odd sapling tree, with a hawthorn being my pride and joy!

Common Wasp

Red Mason Bee

Honey bee

Honey Bee and Passion Flower

Large White Butterfly

Hellebore Flower

Swallow Tailed Moth

Red Tailed Bumblebee

Willow Beauty

Trying to increase the insect population means that other predators will hopefully move in. Imagine my excitement and surprise when I discovered that a bat frequents the area!

I know nothing about bats so here’s a few facts on them:

• There are 18 species of UK bat, with 17 breeding here
• They all eat insects and are a natural pest control for e.g. mosquitoes
• A pipistrelle can eat up to 3000 insects a night
• They use echolocation to find food
• They are indicators of biodiversity
• They pollinate and spread seeds
• Like the dormouse and hedgehog they hibernate
• The mating season is from September and females give birth to one pup around June in maternity roosts
• Cats and birds of prey are their main predators
• They are the only mammal that can fly

I wonder what type of bat is visiting? It could be the most common bat in the UK, called a common pipistrelle. I’d need a bat detector to discover the identity of our new visitor, perhaps I’ll add one to my birthday/Christmas wish list. :p

Have you got bats visiting your garden? What is your favourite bat?

Thanks for reading,

Christine xx

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Twenty.

Day 20: For today’s Throw Back Thursday I will be returning to the theme of planting for wildlife as I did in 2015. 2016 saw me celebrate the summer solstice. In 2017 I showcased bees and in 2018 I walked alpacas.

Planting for wildlife can be so rewarding. My little yarden is five years old and has some wonderful plants for birds and insects.

Such as ivy, polemonium, crocus, salvia, hellebore, red campion, passion flower and delilah.

Salvia

Passion Flower

Red Campion

Polemonium

Crocus

Honey bee

Hellebore

What flowers do you grow for pollinators and birds?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

30 Days Wild 2019 – Day Three.

Day 3: Like last years 30 Days Wild, Mondays will be Close Up Mondays. Where I take one species and delve closer.

Today’s Close Up is the anatomy of a plant. I remember in secondary school (a long time ago) being taught parts of a plant such as the petal and the stamen. So, I thought I would revisit this topic.

The plant structure I am focusing on is a flowering plant or angiosperm. According to Britannica.com angiosperms make up 80% of all plants on the planet. A flowering plant is made up of roughly six sections (though plants such as mosses don’t follow the traditional structure):

Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers. Fruit. Seeds

Roots: are designed to pull water and nutrients from the soil.
Stems: like roots, deliver water and nutrients to other parts of the plant. There are more complex parts to the stem which I won’t delve into here.
Leaves: capture sunlight which then turn into sugars as energy for the plant, this is called photosynthesis. Leaves also absorb CO2 and undertake a process of transpiration by absorbing water from the underside of leaves.

Flowers: are the sex organ of a plant. Flowers usually have both male and female parts. The stamen (anther) is the male structure which produces pollen and the pistal is the female. The pistal has two parts, carpel (the ovary – where seeds originate from) and the stigma (where the pollen is received). Petals often attract pollinators, such a bees and birds to the plant for pollination. Pollination is the transference of pollen from the male stamen to the female stigma.

Anatomy of a flower

Fruit: develop when a flower has been pollinated. Fruits are a way a plant can spread its seed. Examples of fruit are berries, apples and rosehips.

Seeds: are the embryo of the plant and come in all shapes and sizes. They are dispersed by various ways such as by the wind or by animals. Examples being acorns and cones.

I hope you enjoyed this concise review of the anatomy of a flowering plant? If you have any comments do post them below. I’ve also included links to helpful websites which I used to compile this post.

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine x

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Informative websites for further reading:

Biology4kids: a helpful, wide overview on flowering plants
Ducksters.com: digestible information on the anatomy of flowering plants. Even has a quiz you can test yourself found here.
Enchanted Learning: a good start for plant anatomy
The Eden Project: a useful inforgram on pollination

The Ingleton Waterfalls Trail

As the weather was forecast to be changeable this Spring Bank Holiday Monday, David and I went for a five mile walk along the very commercial Ingleton Waterfalls Trail. The trail boasts 20 falls with six main viewpoints. The well defined path (no worries about getting lost), follows two rivers (Twiss and Doe), and meanders through an oak wood before crossing open moorland. The area is a designated SSSI. Instead of parking charges there is a relatively steep £7 each for admittance (that was my only bugbear!) We spent a leisurely three hours walking the trail and were lucky the weather stayed dry.

On our walk we focused on the sights, sounds and smells of nature. Before we reached the first waterfall on the trail, we spied a parent dipper feeding its two fledged youngsters. It was fascinating to watch as the adult would plunge into the water, swim and then pop up with insects or fish in its beak. The two fledglings stood begging with open mouths waiting for the parent to bring back breakfast. The scene was a highlight of our visit and David got some great footage.

Dipper feeding young

Fledgling dipper

Dipper feeding young

Adult dipper

As we continued our walk, climbing upwards through woodland the smell of garlic scented the air and the path was awash with wild garlic (ransoms). I attempted to focus more on the flora of the area and noted a splash of bluebells among emerging woodruff and the odd early purple orchid. I identified the latter two with the help of the app PlantSnap, thanks to Sharon for the suggestion. (Sorry for the poor shot of the orchid.)

Woodruff

unfocused picture of an early purple orchid (sorry)

Wild garlic

Of course the waterfalls were undoubtedly the star attraction. Here’s a selection of photos by David and I.

Pecca Falls

Hollybush Spout

Thornton Force

Beezley Falls

Baxenghyll Gorge

Snow Falls

Have you walked the Ingleton Falls Trail? What did you get up to during the bank holiday?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x

Sunday Sevens #64

It’s Sunday! Time for a quick Sunday Sevens (devised by Natalie at Threads and Bobbins.)

Poorly Pets:
Our new female Lady Gouldinan finch, Rize has been in the hospital cage twice in the two weeks we have had her. The first time we think she took a knock falling from her perch and today she is back in the hospital cage after spending all night on the aviary floor. She is sleeping at the moment but hopefully she will recover. Fingers crossed!

Family Walks: 
Recently we took a three mile family walk with Riley to Port Sunlight River Park.

Port Sunlight River Park

Solo walk with Riley

Riley Walks:
My highlight of the week has been that I was able to complete a solo walk with Riley. He is strong and pulls but with the help of a gentle leader I was able to take him to the local park. After this success Riley and I will be going on many more solo walks in future.

#walk1000miles:
My walking has picked up a little this week, my mileage being 41. Bringing my annual total to 636 miles. If you are participating in the challenge, how are you doing?

Cooking:
As you can tell from this post it’s been a quiet week. For my lunch on Friday I managed to incorporate some cooked puy lentils I had recently purchased. I made a puy lentil and quinoa curried stew. I sweated one chopped white onion, and two cloves of chopped garlic in oil before adding the packet of puy lentils and 50g of uncooked quinoa. I threw in a handful of peas and then tipped in a teaspoon of curry powder, a teaspoon of turmeric and half a teaspoon of chilli powder. Then I poured in 500ml of water with one vegetable stock cube and cooked for 15 minutes. It made for a healthy, tasty meal. Do you like cooking with lentils? If so what’s your favourite recipe?

Puy Lentil with Quinoa Curried Stew

Gardening:
At the weekend, David and I took a trip to Lady Green Garden Centre. I had an empty pot to fill and managed to purchase a polemonium and night scented phlox.

Polemonium

Night Scented Phlox with Artie

Rize and egg

A Happy Note to End With:
An update on Rize. After placing the hospital cage near a radiator (for warmth) and David had massaged her vent, this afternoon Rize laid an egg! The task was long and arduous and Rize at present is resting.

That was my week, how was yours?

Thanks for reading,

Christine xx

Sunday Sevens #59

I’ve been wanting to update you all in a Sunday Sevens (devised by Natalie at Threads and bobbins), for a few weeks now but have not had enough photo content to warrant a post. However I’ve decided to put together pictures from the past two weeks. I hope you enjoy the update?

Family walks:

Sundays have become days when we are joined by members of our family and take Riley on a long walk. Last weekend we visited Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve and walked six miles following the paths overlooking flocks of black tailed godwits and teals.

At Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve

Black Tailed Godwit

This Sunday we took a leisurely 4.5 miles walk around Liverpool’s Otterspool Prom and Festival Gardens in thick mist. It made for some atmospheric pictures.

Misty Pagoda

David and Riley

The Bull

David and Riley

A walk in the mist

#walk1000miles:

The days are noticeably getting longer! This week I have managed to walk 48 miles, which brings my overall total to 356 miles. I am enjoying every step!

Book I am reading:

I’ve just finished reading Joanna Cannon’s Three things About Elsie. I won’t spoil the plot for you but I found many passages in the novel profound. The last chapter had me in tears! Have you read a novel that has affected you?

Three Things About Elsie

Still Me

For my next read I have picked up JoJo Moyes’s last installment of the Me Before You trilogy, Still Me. Have you read any of these books?

Yarden:

With all the early Spring-like weather we have been having recently in the UK, the plants in the yarden are beginning to wake up! During winter I feared for the raspberry but I’ve recently noticed new leaves starting to sprout! The crocus is giving the yarden a splash of colour and there are bluebells leafing. The greatest surprise was that the camellia which usually flowers in April has already begun to bloom!

Crocus

My camellia

RSPB Membership:

Saturday, David and I visited Burton Mere Wetlands. It’s the first reserve we’ve visited with our new membership. We spent an enjoyable three hours and 4.6 miles walking the trails and viewing the pools from the hides.

Dee Estuary

Christine and Robin

David

Little Egret

Kestrel

Shoveler Duck

Robin

Tufted Duck

Redshank

I love discovering new species and learning about them. We saw a flock of redshank, shoveler ducks and a little egret. I can’t wait to visit another RSPB site in the future. Where do you think I should visit next?

So, that was my week(s), how was yours?

Thanks for reading,

Christine x