Awful weather - typical Brits talk

twopenny

Yes, small tortoiseshell. They overwinter in sheds and the like. From Wiki it says they have a special mechanism to stop from freezing and can survive down to -21.

They can migrate too. The caterpillars feed on nettles so a good excuse to leave some - then cut them down for the compost heap or soak for plant food.

I knew if I waited long enogh that tidbit of information in my brain would come in useful

Very hot day so I sat in the shaded part of the garden and enjoyed the results of my labours.

Also beat the young blackbirds to my raspberries. A few recent ones are coming in at nearly and inch across!

Lots of honeybees and hoverflies. Not so many bumbles. However the lavender pinata (sp) big standard things, haven't burst into flower yet,that's the one the Bumbles like. This warm spell should do it.

Davesnave

Hay still not cut.....

alt80

@twopenny thank you I have saved a picture of the small tortoiseshell and the red admiral for my son (he’s 7) and your info about the tortoiseshell- We’re going to centre parcs tomorrow with my wife’s parents. I’m going to see what differences he can spot, if he can find out something about the red admiral to add to the info on the tortoiseshell and if we can spot any at CP. 😊

goldfinches

Thankyou for the id on the creeper @Davesnave, I've carefully labelled the photos I took before I forget.

Very muggy and close here with dark slate blue clouds threatening but I notice that the blackberries have all set this past week so I'm hopeful for a good harvest.
We spotted a large shoal of fish in the river we were walking beside yesterday and then saw watersnails, water boatmen and damselflies when we were admiring some water lilies in a pond. We also came across a lone pyramidal orchid and carefully marked the spot so that we can see if there are more this time next year. It was a lovely break from all the ecological doom and gloom in the news recently although I was so busy making notes about which trees to look for that I forgot to take a photo of the flower. 

[Deleted User]

Beautiful morning, Gardeners 🖐  😎 🌞☀

........ end of the week is in, vague, sight - late finish for me though (8pm) so not yet time to do the 'Happy' dance - but, come 8.30(pm) Happy Hour will, indeed, commence  🍷🤪

quirkydeptless

twopenny said:

Yes, small tortoiseshell. They overwinter in sheds and the like. From Wiki it says they have a special mechanism to stop from freezing and can survive down to -21.

...

Lots of honeybees and hoverflies. Not so many bumbles. However the lavender pinata (sp) big standard things, haven't burst into flower yet,that's the one the Bumbles like. This warm spell should do it.

I read spiders can also create their own anti-freeze to survive the winter.

I'm seeing lots of bees (bumbles and honies) and hoverflies too, and also a lot more and variety of ladybirds.

What I'm not seeing is wasps. Too early for them? Last year I purchased a bird bath. I saw more wasps drinking from it than birds on very hot days, so I joked to my neighbour about my new wasp bath

pink_poppy

I love that photo of the cat, Dave. Izzy or the other one?? Sorry, I can’t remember her name.

My DH started clearing part of the garden yesterday that has overgrown with weeds and looks a mess. Unfortunately he’s taking a ‘rip everything out’ approach which means aquilegias, bluebells, foxgloves and daffodils have all been ripped out 😢 I was just thinking what a bee friendly garden we have here the other day as well... 😕

It’s grey and cloudy this morning after a beautiful day yesterday.

Davesnave

pink_poppy said:

I love that photo of the cat, Dave. Izzy or the other one?? Sorry, I can’t remember her name.

It's Izzy who will cheerfully pose all day. De(Lilah) or Woolly, as she is normally referred to, is hard to find on hot days, let alone photograph!

Sorry about your garden. Aquilegias will have self seeded and bluebells or daffs can be quietly re-planted.

Wish it was cloudy here. I'm not walking today, as planned, because daughter was pinged yesterday like zillions of others, but she had been to some well-dodgy places before coming here on Tuesday! TBH it will be too hot anyway.

MovingForwards

Although it's only upto about 24° up here, it limits doing much in the garden until after 8pm.

It's my time to breathe day off, only I've been running around trying to make the flat look normal as 'MIL' is visiting. First ever visitor to see inside.

As I'm experimenting and learning therefore leaving fruit and veg to get on with it.  I'm quite nervous about showing my garden and expect a lot of tips to be given!

The rabbit is beginning to release I'm not a threat, s/he carries on with what it's doing.

While it's not rose photo day as I'm late to the chat, again, here are mine. They flowered right through to mid-February and were only stopped when I had a couple of days of hard frost. Wonder how long they will flower for this time!

Farway

Love the cat on fence pic Dave, and not rose day photos MF

alt80 said:

@twopenny thank you I have saved a picture of the small tortoiseshell and the red admiral for my son (he’s 7) and your info about the tortoiseshell- We’re going to centre parcs tomorrow with my wife’s parents. I’m going to see what differences he can spot, if he can find out something about the red admiral to add to the info on the tortoiseshell and if we can spot any at CP. 😊

To late now but the beeb today mentioned a free spotting chart, here https://bigbutterflycount.butterfly-conservation.org/ [bottom left of page, download chart]

It's absolutely baking here, blue sky & burning sun. Forecast is same for next couple of days. Because of this I was up to the volunteer garden & watering the pots despite the recent downpours.

All looking well but a couple of the pots are a bit sparse with lock down & spring weather preventing mooching for bedding plants earlier in the year, there are Californian poppies in them but something extra would've boosted them a bit I think, apart from that all's well, even the buddlia has turned out to be a nice double pale mauve one, I think i bought that one from Lidl a few years back and taken cuttings ever since to cover the fence

Plenty of mixed bees here, including a giant bumble big as a thumb, only one wasp, judging by the size I suspect a queen casing the joint

Dave, my son was pinged this morning, bit late because it said he has three days of isolation left , so something went wonky there, In the meantime he possibly infected all of Southampton last weekend.

Actually he feels fine, and he's a teacher so no doubt one of his classes is to blame, especially given the late notification if waiting for a kid to get themselves tested

No chance in this heat of Judas tree lopping, but I noticed it is starting to shade out the blackberry so will need action PDQ