Garden Notes

Ragwort Galore

7/13/2019

July 8 – arriving home from a two week holiday I noticed the Canada Geese were still here but as I approached them they all flew a few feet into the air. I remembered last year that the morning after I had seen them fly for the first time, they were gone. I wondered whether I should walk back to the house and get my camera but couldn’t be bothered and sure enough the following morning they were not to be seen. I was disappointed – they had been a part of our everyday life for the last 4 months. I was left wondering whether they waited for us to come home before flying away?

After 2 weeks the grass had grown but the main thing that struck me was the ragwort in the paddock. It had more or less taken over the eastern end which was a mass of yellow. The daisy-like, yellow flower heads of Common Ragwort belie the poisonous nature of this plant. Renowned as a weed of paddocks and pastures, where it can be harmful to livestock particularly horses. Ragwort is a biennial, flowering in its second year from June to November. I wondered whether its flourishing this year was because I had mown the paddock earlier this year and it had more space to grow. The upside is that the plant is one of the most frequently visited flowers by butterflies and other insects in the UK and more than 200 species of invertebrate have been recorded on it. Ragwort is the foodplant of the black-and-red Cinnabar moth: sometimes its black-and yellow-barred caterpillars cover the plant, totally stripping the leaves.

A walk in the woods (7th 1 minute movie)

5/19/2019

This is the 7th 1 minute movie in the series of movies I have been making about a week in the life of my garden. This one focuses on the 3 acre woodland area bordering the garden, in spite of the noise of the traffic it is a restful place full of life.

The wood is dominated by ash but there are many other trees – oak, wild cherry, blackthorn and hawthorn amongst them. The ash trees rise majestically 30 metres and sway in the wind. They are perhaps 100-150 years old and the wood is copiced. It could have been part of the ancient woodland known to have covered this area in the 13th century. The grown flora is wonderful with a multitude of spring flowers. My favourite spot is in the middle of the woods where the ground is often a bit boggy. Tall grasses grow into the path and the ground is covered in wild flowers in spring.

A few weeks ago I started relaying the paths with wood chips from some trees that had been felled – I call it the yellow chip road. There is something magical about its appearance as it meanders like a river through the dense greenery on either side.
Its soft and springy underfoot and I can walk along it without making a sound which makes it even more magical. By the side of the path are stacks of logs made from the trees that have fallen or had to be cut down.

As I walk quietly through the woods rabbits scuttle away, I have on occasion disturbed deer who go pounding off through the undergrowth and last week I came across a fox cub prowling through the undergrowth looking for small things to eat. There is always something going on in the woods.

During the week I came down to the woods at 4.30 am, something I had never done before, the sound of birds was just incredible. It reminded me that while I am usually asleep tucked up in bed – the natural world has already begun its busy day.

Dawn chorus in the wood

Oh deer (6th 1 minute movie)

5/16/2019

The Roe deer are my favourite visitors to the garden at this time of the year. It always surprises me that such big animals live so close and yet we rarely see them up close. They are very shy and they don’t normally come close to the house but just occasionally they surprise us. Last week we were having dinner at around 8pm when I looked up and saw two deer close to the window. Even though I think they could see me they stayed for several minutes. More typically I walk around the edges of the field next to the garden with my video camera running and hope to catch them as they spring from the thickets along the fence line and charge down to the woods. But I am always excited when I catch a glimpse. Last night I saw a deer feeding in the field. There was an overgrown pylon in the line of sight so I crept up behind it. The wind was blowing towards him so I was pretty certain he would be aware of me and sure enough as I came round the side of the pylon he was ready to dash. But I caught a glimpse of him leaping into the woods. I slowed the film to reveal the grace with which he turns and leaps. Last year we had two baby deer about this time, but I haven’t seen any young-uns not so far.

Rabbits and Foxes (5th 1 miinute movie)

5/16/2019

Here is the fifth of my 1minute movies which I am assembling into a 7 mins week long movie. The garden is full of rabbits at this time of the year. I think we must have at least 100 scattered around and they dig holes in the lawn. They are a nuisance but we put up with them in the knowledge that one day I will probably have to re-turf the whole garden. I can’t deny they are entertaining to watch and a constant reminder that we share our garden with them and lots of other animals. As I write this I can see 4 on the grass in front of me. They have dug a burrow under the summer house with entrances at each of the four sides and it houses a whole family of rabbits – 2 grown ups and at least 4 little-uns. I have also seen the neighbour’s cat waiting to pounce on the little-uns but so far I think they have all survived. In fact, everything seems to go for the baby rabbits. A few days ago I saw a crow attack one as it ran across the field. The rabbits have been the most difficult animal to film. They pick up the slightest movement and are gone into the bushes by the side of the garden. Yesterday I crept to within about 6m of a couple of them but could not get any nearer.

The other character in this garden tale is the resident fox who comes by every few days and hangs out for a bit hoping to catch one of the little-uns but they disappear before she gets anywhere near them. More than likely she has some cubs somewhere but she has yet to show them to us. She criss-crosses her territory picking up scents and occasionally digging something up- probably a worm. I enjoy watching her move, sometimes she looks a bit drunk but there is also something delicate about the way she places his feet – almost like a thoroughbred horse. She looks to be well fed but only rarely do I see him with a rabbit in his mouth. I wish he was a bit more efficient at catching rabbits but she is not fast enough to catch the big-uns. I have seen her pass rabbits only a few metres away – she knows she can’t catch them so she doesn’t bother. They seem to co-exist quite happily together - and so should I.

SEQUAL - this very afternoon I was creeping round the woods next to the garden when I thought I saw a cat prowling through the undergrowth. I stood still and watched a cub fox poked his head up and continued to rummage for a minute or so before moving off. So he had already learnt to hunt for himself.

Seeds on the wind (4th 1 minute movie)

5/15/2019

There is a gentle breeze and the air is full of floating white fluffy seeds from the clump of three white willow trees over near the paddock fence. It’s possible to watch the seeds leave their catkin and dance away on the wind until they are out of sight. White willow is dioecious, meaning male and female flowers grow on separate trees. Catkins appear in early spring. The male catkins are 4-5 cm long while female catkins are 3-4 cm long and a bit narrower than the male. After pollination by insects, the female catkins lengthen and develop small capsules, each containing tiny seeds encased in white down. These white feathery attachments help seeds to float on the wind like a dandelion seed head. I slowed the film down so that I could see more clearly their dance on the wind.

As I stand under the willows I am amazed at the entertainment before my eyes and I become enveloped by the participants. I step outside the tree and look across the almost horizontal flow of floating seeds. They dissapear out of sight. The wind is blowing to the east and the seeds flow like a river in that direction. I walk to the far edge of the field over 50m away and they are still floating past me. Some get caught on the hedge but a multitude carry on into and across the next field. This is an annual cycle. On my camera I notice I had filmed the same event on May 18th almost exactly one year ago.

Something fishy (3rd 1 minute movie)

5/14/2019

Today I tried to film the fish in the pond. They are not easy to film as the water is quite turbid and mostly you just see the dark shapes. However, if you toss a bit of bread into the water the still, brown murky water suddenly comes to life as the fish go into a sort of feeding frenzy breaking the surface as they snatch the crumbs. Of course it doesn't last long once the canada geese spot a free lunch.

Celebrating family (2nd 1 minute movieThis

5/13/2019

When I look out of my window I see a pair of Canada geese with their six goslings. They were born about a month ago and already they have lost their cuteness and become big fluffy balls. But they are a tightly knit family group and the parents stick by the chicks at all times so they all survive and flourish. This contrasts, with the Coot's whose babies are all over the place and because of that few survive. So my one minute movie celebrates the unity and discipline of family in protecting and nurturing the young.

Early morning beauty (my first 1 minute movie)

5/12/2019

This week I am going to produce a movie called 'A Week in the Life of my Garden'. It will be my contribution to the BBC's annual Get Creative Festival which encourages people to do something they feel is creative and to share what they have done. I will be sharing my movie with the members of the Creative Academic and #creativeHE facebook group as part of our own Lets Get Creative Festival and hope that it encourages others to make their own garden movies. I will also share it in the Wildlife Gardening Facebook group

I didn't know how I was going to make the movie at the start or what I would make the movie about but I was confident that my garden would inspire me. On the first day of discussion in the #creativeHE someone talked about the 1" drawings they make everyday and this gave me the idea of a 1minute movie each day. So that solved theproblem of how I would make my movie and this is the first of my 1 minute movies.

I woke up this morning and the sun was streaming through the bedroom window. It propelled me out of bed and into the garden with my camera and I took these stunning early morning photos that I turned into a 1 minute movie using windows moviemaker. I knew that these were photos I could only take at this particular moment in this particular space. What a wonderful start to the day and to my 'Week in the Life of My Garden' movie.

I used one of the photos to create a dreamscope (digital) painting. I find it amazing that even a digitally composed painting can be aesthetically pleasing and transform a scene to bring out fresh interest and beauty that engages us emotionally.

Quiet reflections for a special day

5/5/2019

Today is a special day for me and my children. It’s the 20th anniversary of the day my first wife Jill died of breast cancer. I remember the day and particularly the early morning a few hours after she died quite vividly. It was about 6am when I arrived home from the hospital and feeling numb and disoriented I sat shivering by the canal at the bottom of our garden where we used to live gazing into the reflections in the water. It was a morning similar to this morning bright and beautiful and dazzling as the early morning sun bounced off the water. Jill loved sitting by the water and we all have fond memories of her sitting on the bench on the jetty drinking her morning coffee so I thought I would make my simple memorial through a movie that reflects the stillness and beauty in the water of our pond.

Every year at this time the foregetmenots bloom as if to remind us not to forget her. They poke up everywhere and you can't escape them. It's easy to see how we create meaning from such things. But she is never far from our thoughts and that will be until we cannot remember her any more.

The arborists

4/24/2019

This week there has been a major effort to tackle our trees.I employed two different teams of arborists to do the major cutting and bole grinding while I did the tidying up around the edges. It was great to watch these young but experienced men climb the trees and cut them down. They also chipped what they had cut so I was left with a big pile of chips that I used to cover the path in the woods - a yellow-chip road! So where there used to be half fallen trees there are now neat stacks of logs.

Garden Notes
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 and experiences in it through photos, movies, paintings and other artefacts it inspires me to create.

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

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