As this has been such a wet, windy ,cold "summer" I have not posted anything for a long time. It has however been a marvelous year for the plants which grow in the hedgerows and along the roadsides so I have been busy with the camera recording them as they came into flower. I have also managed to get a few insects as well. There have not been very many butterflies about. I am going to put a selection of the plants which have flowered this summer up so that the huge variety can be appreciated,and enjoyed.

Ducks

The other day Ben and I  were out for our walk when two ducks flew up out of the ditch beside the road, they went so fast I barely had time to see them. The sparrow hawk has been round the bird feeders again lately and a magpie has discovered it can get on the bird table which is a bit of a nuisance. The cold weather has halted the fast growth and we still have some daffodils and the cowslips are only coming into their best. The poor horse chestnut trees got a real bashing in the gales lately with leaves and flowers blown off them, the lane looked as if it was covered in confetti with all the bits of leaf and blackthorn flowers. This last two or three days we have had heavy showers of hail which made it look as if it had snowed, with bright sunshine in between but no warmth as the wind has been so cold.

April 2012

I have not managed to keep my blogs up in the last couple of months as all the pictures I took were stuck on a camera and there they stayed what ever I did. This means that I have missed a few of the early flowers and the opening of the horse chestnut buds. I have now managed to get a few pictures of primroses and cowslips and the first few flowers on the chestnut. The blackthorn has been lovely but is now going over.as the leaves begin to show on the hawthorn and privet. the weather was so mild early that we had a real spurt of growth but it turned much colder and things have slowed down again to more normal growth for the time of year.

Correction

I have a correction to make as I mistakenly called the sparrow hawk in the last post a male, it is a female and the one which visited last winter was a young male. The small birds are very busy at the feeders as it has been quite a lot colder the last few days. the bright clear days are lovely after all the dull dark ones we have had.

Sparrow Hawk

This morning when I got back after walking Ben he dashed up the path at the back of the house  and bounced what I thought at first was a blackbird but realised it was bigger. It only fluttered just out of his way and i told him to leave it, which he did, when I got near I saw it was a hawk sitting on the path beside the up turned wheel barrow. I thought it might be hurt as it didn't move as I passed it. I got my camera and took a few photos through the open kitchen window. then got out the bird book and checked it out, it appears to be a male sparrow hawk. After about fifteen minutes it looked around again and flew away. It must have hit the window while chasing one of the little birds at the feeders, Dad said he heard a bang while Ben and I were out.

January 2012

It was such a sunny morning I took my camera with Ben when we went for our walk and have added a few new pictures to celebrate the start of a new year on the old bog road.