norman's website
  • Home
  • Scraps of life blog
    • #creativeHE
    • Garden Notes
    • BYOD4L BLOG
  • Books
  • Change
  • Creativity
  • Professional services
  • BNU STUDY VISIT
  • Contact me
  • GMIT
  • AIT
  • portsmouth
  • DIT
  • TLC
  • BERA
  • ICOLACE4
  • PDP
  • OUC
  • MMU
  • Derby
  • dmucreatives
  • Chester
  • Brighton
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Hallam
  • St Marys
  • LIMERICK
  • kingston
  • UWL
  • SEDA
  • MACAO
  • Beijing
  • IFIUT
  • CRA seminar
  • FBSEworkshop
  • birmingham
  • Creativity in Higher Education
  • graduatestandardsprogramme
  • MAKING MEANING
  • Our Garden
  • Untitled
  • Blogs
  • LEARNING ECOLOGY BOOK

Unusual weather

2/15/2019

0 Comments

 
It was -2C at 8am this morning. There was a heavy frost and it was misty.
Picture
By lunchtime it was sunny and 14C
Picture
By 4.15 the sun was going down and it lit up the willow tree.
Picture
0 Comments

January project - the beech hedge

1/16/2019

0 Comments

 
There is something really beautiful about a low winter sun and we had a few of those days in January.

January had some cold snaps, heavy frosts and frozen pond. I found some ducks looking a bit lost on the ice.
Picture
But who decides its spring? Of course there is the official calendar view of March 1st or the astronomical view March 20th, but there is also the view of the plants and trees that decide its time to put up shoots and declare, at least for them, its time to grow again.. In the first week of January I spotted the first daffodils and seeds on the hazel tree so at least for them spring has begun.

These signs reminded me that it was time to 'prune' the hedges and shrubs that have been neglected for a long time. So I started with the beech hedge. Two sides of a 40m long by 5m high hedge, overgrown with ivy and in places tangled with brambles and a mass of creepers is a big job by any measure. I chipped away at it a couple of hours a day, most days for the best part of three weeks but by the end of January it was completed and burning what I had cut gave me a lot of satisfaction.

0 Comments

Dying squirrel

1/2/2019

0 Comments

 
I came across a squirrel lying on the grass. At first I thought he was asleep but when I got closer I could see from the involuntary twitching of limbs that this squirrel was close to death. I watched him close his eyes and breathe his last breath. I have no idea why he died but it reminded me of a recent bereavement in my own family. I came across a poem by Michael Prihoda which provides a nice tribute to the little fellow.
Picture
0 Comments

The geese are back

12/30/2018

0 Comments

 
I have often wondered what happened to our family of geese once they have flown away. I imagined they split up. But today our family of geese returned. Only for a short while but they let us know they were here and I was able to go out and take a photo. So now I know they stick together, at least for a while.
Picture
0 Comments

From Autumn to Winter

10/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
When I look back at my photos autumn was coming from early September when the dogwood leaves started to turn red. 6 weeks on and the dogwood has lost most of its leaves leaving the red stalks. We have a red maple rising above the dogwood and the scene is so beautiful that I got out my paints.

Astronomically autumn starts at the equinox (September 23) but meteorologically it starts September 1st so we are nearly 6 weeks into it. I decided to record the changes in my photos throughout the autumn so I will keep adding to my movie as we move through October and November. 

Shorter daylight hours and colder nights are what trigger leaf drop – or senescence – but frost and rain can damage leaves and cause early leaf fall. Plenty of sunshine is needed to encourage concentrations of colour pigments which help to intensify leaf colour. Our cold spring and hot summer will have helped ready the leaves for a beautiful autumn display, but it also hinges on what the weather does now. Today was like summer again blue skies and temperatures in the low 20’s.

Picture
Leaf fall or senescence, is an “altruistic death” allowing the degradation and redistribution of nutrients produced during growth back to other parts of the plant. This strategy evolved to maximise the fitness and survival of the plant. Leaf senescence is highly complex, involving multiple genes and numerous biological, chemical and physical processes. At the heart of it all is a pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is what gives leaves their green colour, absorbing and reflecting different hues from the colour light spectrum, as seen in a rainbow. In leaves it absorbs mainly red and blue light, reflecting green, and it is this reflection that makes leaves appear green to the human eye. In autumn, chlorophyll, mainly in deciduous plants, is slowly broken down and reabsorbed by the plant, diminishing the green colour of the leaves. It is this reabsorption that ensures they spring back to life the following year. As chlorophyll is broken down, pigments called carotenoids and flavonoids are revealed and it is these, again, through the absorption and reflection of different colours from the light spectrum, that are responsible for the yellow and orange hues of leaves. Sugar concentration in the leaves also increases anthocyanin production, which causes some leaves to turn a shade of red.

So that’s the science…here is my film of autumn to winter watch.

0 Comments

Cornish gardens, moorlands and rock pools

9/14/2018

0 Comments

 
I've been busy wih famiy since the end of July and had little time for being in my garden. The dry hot summer continued well into August and the ground was parched. The early summer flowers wilted and were not replaced and the garden seemed to go into a state of hot hibernation. We had our family holiday in Cornwall in early September and I came back inspired by the things I had seen. Firstly, we stayed in an old granite house in Portreath and the back garden ran up a ravine with a little stream which ran under the house - there was always the sound of running water. The owners had over 40 years cultivated a wilderness with a great variety of plants aided by the mild climate. Nearby walks on the cliffs provided a landscape dominated by gorse, heather and bracken and dry stone walls colonised with plants.   We visited the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the wonderful 'sub-tropical' garden and the Eden project with its biodomes filled with tropical and mediterannean plants. 
​All provided wonderful ideas and inspirations for future gardening projects.
Picture
But my most enjoyable experience was on the beach pottering around the rock pools with my daughter and watching the tide submerge and reclaim them. The deep crystal clear pools, on the north side of the beach at Portreath by the harbour wall, were ful of life - darting blennies, sea squirts, numerous varieties of seaweed, molluscs and other shell fish. Tide dependent rock pools are habitats that a gardener cannot create. But then I learnt that several of the pools had been carved out of the rocks to prvide a bathing place for Lady Bassett!!

Picture
0 Comments

Through the eyes of a bird

8/1/2018

1 Comment

 
I have always been fascinated by rhe idea of flying. My dream came true when, as a geologist working in Saudi Arabia, I spent quite a lot of time in helicopters. The advent of drones has opened up a whole new world and I often thought it would be great to get a birds eye view of the world through a drone. I finally bought one to add another dimension to my garden learning project and, thanks to the piloting skills of Navid, this is our first effort at filming the garden and surrounding area. What this film does is allow the garden to be seen in the landscape.
1 Comment

Bees

7/19/2018

0 Comments

 
I was pulling up some bindweed by the side of the house when I came across a crack in the ground from which buzzing bees emerged. I put a couple of flags half over the opening to provide a bit of protection and then sat and watched them emerging and reentering the nest. I took some photos and then used a bee identification chart to see that these where white tailed bees. 
Picture
That triggered my interest in the bees in my garden and I went in search of flowering plants to see what bees I could find. In the far corner of the field I discovered some flowering blackberry bushes tangled up with nettles and thistles and this few square metres was alive with bees from 7am to 7.30pm. 
Picture
Over the next few days I made several trips to this location, and other flowering plants in the field and recorded the bees and hornets that were feeding on the plants. I found that there were at least five species of bee in this small area – honey bee, white tailed bumble bee (the most abundant bee), red tailed bumble bee, forest cuckoo bee, and a so far unidentified bee. There were also hornets and hover flies that mimicked the bee in colouring and behaviour. Two things struck me - the busyness of the bees and how all these differemt species were coexisting peacefully in the same small area.
I discovered that there are currently 24 species of bumblebee resident in Britain. Seven species of bumblebee (the ‘Big 7’) are widespread across most of Britain. These are: Red-tailed (Bombus lapidarius), Early (Bombus pratorum), Common carder (Bombus pascuorum), White-tailed (Bombus lucorum), Buff-tailed (Bombus terrestris), Garden (Bombus hortorum), Tree (Bombus hypnorum).  There is only one bee that produces honey – honey bee.
0 Comments

Canada Geese - first 10 weeks of life

7/10/2018

0 Comments

 
Last night I caught the Canada geese learning to fly.. I had seen them experimenting a few times but the hot, still weather we have been having was not conducive to flying. This afternoon the wind got up and for a couple of hours mum and dad put the young ones through their paces. There was definitely a feeling in the air that it was time to move on and when I looked for them this morning they had gone and the garden seemed very empty without them.
Over the years we have come to know and love the cycle of arrival in April, pairing and mating, nesting for about 4 weeks when the eggs are hatched. First sight of the fluffy chicks, and then their steady and rapid growth to look like footballs and then dinosaurs, slowly transforming into mini Canada geese and then growing to a similar size to their parents. Then watching them learn to fly and soon after leaving us. The whole cycle lasts about ten weeks from first sight of chicks (April 28th this year) to when they fly away (July 10th this year) – probably to the large flocks in nearby fields.

In many respects we have the ideal habitat for geese.. A small pond with no competitors other than the occasional heron, a large closely cropped lawn that enables them to see anyone or anything coming from a distance. An adjacent field with an abundance of long grasses, and some trees for shade when it gets too hot.

I learnt that Canada geese mate for life and its possible that the same couple come back year after year. They are impeccable parents sticking close to the chicks all the time they are with us, standing up to anyone or anything that gets to close, and standing no nonsense from the chicks who obey every instruction. If another goose comes close the male becomes quite aggressive and if the chicks are old enough they line up behind the male in a show of solidarity and defiance. Their threat displays involve head pumping, bill opened with tongue raised, hissing, honking, and vibrating neck feathers as well as arching the back and flapping wigs. On one occassion I witnessed the whole family, led by the male, see off another goose who decided he also liked my garden.

The only downside of having geese in the garden is the enormous amounts of waste they produce. It doesn’t smell but it does attract flies in hot weather. I have to think of it as natures process for recycling.
This summer, as I have watched and recorded the life unfolding in my garden I have come to appreciate just how caring and attentive the geese are towards their chicks. They are always on the lookout for would be predators and are fiercely protective of the family who respond in a disciplined way when they sense danger. They have been the easiest subjects to photograph and film and their absence has left me with empty nest syndrome.
0 Comments

Water lilies

7/8/2018

0 Comments

 
Water lilies are the most beautiful and generous flowers: they all but disappear in the winter but  around May the first lilly pads appear and by June the first flowers begin to show. Eventually a signififcant  area of the pond is covered with thick green pads dotted with flowers and these continue through July and August. They provide shelter for fish and enable the heron to access the fish. They help the dragon flies and damsel flies lay their eggs in the water and help reduce evaporation - something that is very noticeable during this long hot summer. They are an important part of the pond ecosystem but they also transform the pond with their colour and movement in the wind.
Picture
It's little wonder that artists like Claude Monet have been inspired to paint water lilies floating on a reflective pond. In 1890 he bought a house at Giverny and in 1893 purchased a meadow near the property which contained a pond fed by the Ru River. He hired at least six gardeners who gradually shaped the meadow into a garden of willows, irises and water lilies specially imported from Japan. He painted the gardens around the house and then turned his attention to the water gardens, painting them repeatedly between 1897 until his death in 1926. In all, he produced more than 250 oil paintings of his lily ponds and admitted "These landscapes of water and reflections have become an obsession."  Monet's water garden and one of his paintings are shown above.

I would not be surprised if the gardener who designed my garden incorporated Monet's paintings of his water garden into his a vision for his own water garden, and I am the fortunate person to see his vision realised over 40 years later. Making my film prompted me to ask, who is the greater creator? - the gardener who lays out and stimulates nature to enable plants and animals to recreate his living cultural artefact decades later, or the artist who in a few hours or days makes an artefact that will never live or change. Perhaps its not something that can be judged, both involve imagination and creativity and that is enough.
But I do know that I am grateful to the gardener who invested his time, money, effort and creativity in creating a water garden that I can experience, enjoy and appreciate everyday, which provides a natural environment in which many plants and animals flourish, and therefore makes a valuable contribution to the natural world.

​I wondered how Monet would have painted my water garden and came across an app called Dreamscope that contained a Monet artist filter. Here is the digital painting that it thinks Monet might have created.
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Garden Notes
    ​#gardennotes

    My garden keeps me busy and it gives me the exercise I need to keep fit. It also gives me a lot of pleasure and happiness. It enables me to express myself creatively and draws my attention to the beauty and ecology of life. In this blog  I am telling the story of my garden and my involvement in it through photos, movies, paintings and other artefacts that it inspires me to create. 

    Picture
    Useful Links
    Wildlife Garden Forum
    Surrey Wildlife Trust 
    Habitat Network
    Plant Identification UK




    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed