Nature notes

 Well, we're told that Claydon bottom lock is now working. I think they've even fixed the top paddle.  We're not ready quite yet to get back on Herbie because of home commitments but it won't be long, although they say another heatwave might be on the way.  I'm never going to get the rest of the roof painted at this rate.  Meanwhile, it's now cool enough to potter about outdoors to see how all the wild critters and plants have been faring, so I thought I'd write about that for a change.  These photos were taken today.

This morning we took a stroll (with ship's cat Gertie) over in the old graveyard behind our house. The half of it just beyond our back hedge is now preserved as a wildlife area and we love it. We just walk through a gap in our hedge and there we are.

Now's the peak time for my favourite butterflies.  One I like to see is the marbled white. I didn't see any in the last couple of years, but today there were lots of 'em in the churchyard.  Perhaps they like heatwaves.

Like this one, they seem to like feeding on the knapweed, and there's a lot of that over there.

Another welcome returner is the Small Skipper. These are dead cute with the strange way it holds its double wings and they're very small. This one hasn't been reading the right books because it's supposed to be feeding on Yorkshire Fog.

You might not know that Yorkshire Fog is not a weather phenomenon but a fairly common type of grass. I confess that I didn't know that either until  a couple of years ago. Long grass is not exactly in short supply in our churchyard, neither are wild and not so wild flowers. Almost at every step you disturb little clouds of insects. The birds must have no trouble getting enough to eat, although I'm not sure if they are quick enough to catch the grasshoppers. I certainly failed to get a photo of one although there were loads of them.

While I was chasing a marbled white (the little b***ers won't stay still to pose for a picture), I stumbled across this Ringlet.

 He wouldn't sit still either so he's a bit blurred.  Actually I suppose he might be a she. How do you sex a butterfly?

Meanwhile, back in our (somewhat dessicated) garden we are walking through sawdust.

It's everywhere. The floor is covered in it. You have to brush off the seats before you can sit and the spider webs in the hedge are clogged with it. It gets in your hair too if you stay still for a couple of minutes. 

Of course it's not really sawdust but the flowers from the huge lime tree that overhangs us. It's a love hate relationship with that tree.  There isn't a week in the year when it isn't dropping stuff on us -flowers, sticky goo, seeds, leaves and all winter, daily deposits of dead twigs and branches . It also blots out most of the sky, which is in itself is a mixed blessing because at least it offers us shade in hot weather.

See those dead branches? I hope I'm not underneath when they drop off.  Lets have a closer look at those flowers

Still plenty of them to come down.  BUT we can't complain because for the last week they've bathed us in the most incredible fragrance.  It's absolutely gorgeous and it's really powerful.

We keep a buddelia in the garden especially for the butterflies, but to be frank, the butterflies don't seem to like it much. At the moment it's feeding the bumble bees.

I'm a really rubbish gardener.  I recently bought a little bay tree in a pot and it fell over behind the wall and I forgot about it in the hot dry weather and I think it might be dead.  Conversely I seem to have killed yet another thyme plant, and I think it might be because I over watered it. Doh!

Anyway that's it for now. We  hope to actually go out on the canal this summer. See you then.

Toodle pip.