The day started bright and sunny which fitted well with my plan for a day spent gardening. I had a list of several jobs to do but the weeding, which had been added as a pleasant interlude, became the main activity of the day. Things are growing so quickly now that I couldn't ignore the weeds especially those on the bank where the hardy geraniums are making good growth. Once the geraniums start flowering I think I do more damage than good clambering about pulling out the weeds but at the moment there is space to stand/balance between the clumps of new leaves. There is still a little bit too do at the very top but the bulk of the work has been done. I had just decided to call it a day when it started to rain so apart from having to make a run for my camera which I had handy for any butterflies that came by, I timed it well.
I had hoped that the grass would be dry enough to cut in the afternoon but lunchtime it rained which included hail ! and left the grass still wet. Yesterday I had dismantled the lawn mower as it was making an odd noise, actually all I did was undo and take out the bolt for the blade, remove some plant fibers which were caught up there and reassemble it after a couple of squirts with WD40. It sounded OK when I started it up again.
There have been butterflies around for the past week though the main 'wildlife' has been the many bees buzzing around the flowering heathers. The pair of town sparrows has once more taken up residence in the hole in the wall by our bedroom window and a blue-tit was investigating a hole by the window on the other side. I think hole is too small because it gets lots of visits but nobody ever takes up residence. The pippistrelle bats have been back for a while, they use one of the attics as a summer roost but we don't seem to have jackdaws in there as well thank goodness. From the noise I hear they have settled en-masse in next-door's barn.
Butterflies - from the top: Comma, Peacock and Orange-tip. The orange=tips only stop briefly so it is hard to get a good picture. Here's hoping for many more butterflies this summer.
2 comments:
The butterflies are so pretty.
Those weeds sure come up fast!!
Lovely photos of butterflies and thank you for identifying them. We missed our Monarch butterflies last year. Apparently, they are diminishing rapidly due to various causes both environmental as well as people. I put sand in shallow plastic lids, wet it for the butterflies to get a drink. That along with my flowers are my contribution to our butterfly guests.
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