AFTER THE HEATWAVE - PART 1

I've  not  managed to do a post for some time.. 'oh really, we hadn't noticed' I hear some of you exclaim!...the reason being is the recent spell of Summer, I think that's what it's called? weather.

With a rather forceful prompt from her that Is Always(!) obeyed and with encouragement from Norman my ever energetic next door neighbour I found myself taking advantage of the weather and 'doing something with the garden'. what I thought would be one day, at most, of just a bit of tidying around turned into a major project of repairing, replacing and repainting the fencing. Then we came to the shed, Oh!  the shed!  Well, I knew it was in a sorry state but I think the only thing stopping it from falling over was the junk inside!  We, that's Norman and me, spent the best part of the next four days (in temperatures topping the high 20's Celsius) refurbishing, repairing , rebuilding and repainting the entire thing!  Needless to say my repeated suggestion that it would be quicker to buy a new one fell on deaf ears. 

With another day spent sorting the 'saving' junk from the 'throwing away' junk and a couple of trips to the dump and I was knackered...er..I mean, it was finished. Phew!

I must admit though the garden now looks a whole lot better  and I can't wait for the next ten (or so!) years when it will probably need doing again!

It was not really as bad as I've painted it... no pun intended, as I did manage a couple of brief outings for a spot of fungi foraging and  some bird watching.

 As ever I amassed quite a few! photographs  and to save you all from getting board (I hope!) I will spread them between two or three (or maybe four.. .  {:o(  ... ) posts.

I'll start with some fungi... as ever, the ID's are not 100% sure and I welcome any suggestions (kind ones please!) that you may have.

 Three stages of an emerging Fly Agaric

Fiery Milkcap

Clouded Funnel

Brown Rollrim

Black Bulgar

False Chanterelle

Clustered Toughshank

Amethyst Deceiver

Bicoloured Deceiver

 

 

Common Puffball

What would you like to be bored..I mean see next, more fungi, birds or 'dragons'?

Wet Woody and The Dark Intruder

WET WOODY

A couple of days ago, you know the one, when it rained!  A Wood Pigeon settled on my shed roof looking in a bit of a state (the Pigeon, not the shed roof!  Although my wife’s favourite saying at the moment is “you know that shed roof will need fixing soon”) anyway as I said, the Pigeon looked in a bit of a state I think it possibly had had a bit of a run in with a car or maybe the local feline.

It sat on the shed in the rain for about two hours looking very fed up and occasionally shaking the water from its head. Eventually it moved to the top of the bird table where it sat for another half hour or so with the rain bouncing off its head, allowing me to go outside in slippers and t-shirt and with the camera covered in a tea towel, to take some close-up pictures.

It’s a good job the neighbours were all at work and couldn’t see me wandering around the garden getting wetter and wetter taking pictures of a thoroughly fed up Pigeon!

The good news is that it eventually it moved onto the bird table proper and started to feed on the seed and the next day it was back in the garden feeding as normal, if still looking a bit dishevelled.

THE DARK INTRUDER

While out walking in the woods the other day I encountered something that I had only seen briefly twice before, both times whilst I was driving the car and couldn't stop.........Black Squirrels!

There are a couple of theories as to where the Black Squirrel came from. One is that it is a mutation of our native Grey Squirrel (having excessive quantities of the black pigment melanin) and the other theory is that native American Black Squirrels were introduced to Woburn Park Bedfordshire at the end of the last century by the then Duke of Bedford and that they promptly jumped the wall and escaped.

I don't know which one is correct but now that I know where I can find them I will go back some time and see if I can get some better quality photos.