Sunny Weekend & Funny Tortoises

It looks like the sun has returned for July and let's hope we get a lot of nice sunny days now. I've marginally got my hay fever under better control now thanks to steroids, which I'm not thrilled about being on but the GP and I have exhausted every other option so this is a last resort to try and get it under control. It's the worst it's ever been for the last two years :-( Does anyone else suffer with it really badly? I take tablets, eye drops and nasal spray daily, go to bed with a flannel over my face most nights - Jack's even bought a special pollen mesh to fit on the windows! I've suffered for over twenty years and it shows no signs of being outgrown in my immune system. I've tried local honey, all sorts! Failing that I'll need a gas mask and boiler suit!

I have been able to get outside and enjoy the garden in brief spells anyway and both the front and back garden are looking colourful at the moment. The Borage is flowering and the bees seem to spend their time going backwards and forwards between them and the Lavender. We've had some nice walks out with Barry too exploring a few new routes. I found a pretty meadow nearby with a track running all the way around the edge where the public footpath runs through. Barry likes disappearing off in the long grass in search of rabbits. He then comes home totally worn out and hops straight into his favourite chair in the conservatory and has a snooze!

My brother and his girlfriend have gone on holiday for two weeks so we're looking after Jenna's Horsfield Tortoise named Terry. Terry is a Russian tortoise so quite different in his markings to my two Hermanns tortoises (Mediterranean Tortoises), but nonetheless he's just as cute. He's a real character anyway and anyone who thinks tortoises are slow boring pets are very much mistaken! It's not advised to mix different species of tortoises together due to different parasites they may be carrying or if they were to accidently mate, but I thought a quick meet and greet between the 'cousins' as we call them wouldn't hurt as ours are all healthy animals. I also thought it would make for a funny photo of all the cousins together so I sat all three tortoises on the lawn and made Barry lie down next to them. Terry's usually a very shy tortoise and hides away a lot, not like my two that love a tickle under their chin. I quickly took the photo and seconds later Terry tried to bite Barry, making Barry yelp and run away. Terry then proceeded to chase Barry around the lawn (yes, you read that right, a tortoise chasing a dog) before then switching to chasing Squirt (my biggest tortoise) and biting her back leg and refusing to let go. I managed to peel him off and banished him back to the old wire run we used for my two before we built their permanent run, what a little hooligan! Barry (aka Wimp Dog) can add tortoises to his list of everything he's scared of and Squirt and Lola aren't interested in meeting Terry again! I then went inside for all of five minutes, came back out to find Terry missing from his run - he'd managed to pull the chicken wire away from the frame and luckily I found him hiding under the nearby Rosemary plant. I put him back in a safer run and told him to behave and then relayed the story to Jack. Jack's witty response to me was "it's because he's an only child" which had me in stitches and made Jenna and my parents laugh when I called them later that day! What an eventful ten minutes that turned out to be! That's the first and definitely the last time that they all meet each other!

Barry keeping a very wary eye on the tortoises, seconds before Terry tried to taste him!

We had Jack's parents and Grandparents visit yesterday which was lovely. Barry took a shine to Barbara and insisted that she play tug of war with him and his chicken leg toy! We had a nice roast in the pub in the afternoon before they all headed home again. Barbara had very kindly put together a lovely food basket for Jack and I, full of tasty goodies! I love the basket too, very handy for yarn and other crafty bits (Jack's already moaning about the fact that there's craft baskets everywhere in our house!).

Barry and Barbara

Lovely food basket from Jack's Grandparents, Barbara and Brian

We've got a quiet week this week other than work, which will be busy for me as I'm on Jury Service next week. I have to say I'm really looking forward to it and think it will be quite interesting. I've been warned that it's a lot of sitting and waiting but that sounds perfect to me - I might finally be able to catch up on some reading as the books 'to read' pile is growing. I hope I can take some crochet too if it's allowed.

Can't resist sharing this photo of Jack and Barry snoozing on Friday evening, I must have worn them both out on our dog walk earlier that afternoon!

Have a good week everyone!


Em x

Butterflies

Having only moved into our house back in January, we decided to leave the front and back gardens mostly as they were for this year to be able to discover what plants and flowers were growing there. The previous homeowner left things to run a little wild though which meant that we had to do a bit of pruning in order to regain the beautiful view over the back fence to the countryside that surrounds us.

One plant that I've always been a big fan of is Buddleia, mainly because of the pretty little creatures they attract; Butterflies. The Buddleia in our back garden has been allowed to run wild and tall this summer and is full of tiny purple flowers. This is how I've managed to take part in the Big Butterfly Count last month and this month for Butterfly Conservation http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/ Our Buddleia is full of butterflies! So far the species I've managed to spot in the garden are:

• Large White
• Small White
• Small Tortoiseshell (I counted 20 on the Buddleia at one time!)
• Red Admiral (my new favourite)
• Meadow Brown
• Comma
• Peacock

Stunning Red Admiral in the garden

I can remember not that many years ago when Butterflies became a really rare sight, I especially noticed that back in Cambridgeshire. It's funny how you notice trends like that - another I notice here on a different note is that I very rarely see Kestrels (my favourite bird of prey) in West Berkshire, yet they were a common sight back in Cambridgeshire. We do however have Red Kites soaring right above our house here in West Berkshire and they are a wonderful sight too, there were four playing just the other day, soaring and dive-bombing and playing in the blue skies. Given the size of Red Kites it's no wonder that you don't see many Kestrels! Back to the butterflies though, it's lovely to see so many different species all in our garden. The farmer has left a nice big wildlife boundary between our garden fence and the wheat field and this is abundant with grasses, wildflowers and nettles, the latter being the ideal plant for butterflies to lay their eggs. As well as the Buddleia attracting Butterflies to the garden, it's also attracting another garden favourite, the Bumblebee! I love watching these insects working, they don't seem to stop and we've had some rather big Bumblebees in the garden. The noise they make as they buzz from flower to flower is rather loud and quite often I catch Barry looking up at the Buddleia wondering why it almost seems to be humming. As yet Barry hasn't been stupid enough to catch a Bee and let's hope he doesn't! He's quite the fan of chasing insects in the garden! I also met a Carpenter Bee for the first time the other day when it sadly got trapped in our conservatory while the door was open, but I managed to guide it out. We also have a number of honey bees in the garden and suspect there are hives nearby in the village.

Small Tortoiseshells on the Buddleia

 

I'm not sure how much longer the Buddleia will keep flowering for, but luckily my lavenders in the garden are also thriving and this seems to keep the Butterflies and Bees happy. I've only managed to plant a few other plants in the garden such as Dianthus, Dahlias, a lovely Hydrangea and a few hardy Fuchsias. I'm absolutely loving having my own garden, but sadly I'm a Hayfever sufferer and it's been a particularly bad pollen season for me this year. I don't let it deter me for the most part but have to admit defeat when my eyes just about swell shut (not a pretty look!). The Butterflies have given me the photography urge once more though and I have to say it's lovely playing around with the camera again (hopefully I'll have something more than these phone photos to show you soon).

 

 



Comma

 

One other part I love about having my own garden (other than pottering around, enjoying fresh air and admiring the countryside views) is growing my own herbs and other food. I'm a keen cook and I love using fresh products. There's something even better about them being grown in your own garden. I'd love a smallholding one day, it's been a dream of mine since I was very young and I love the idea of living more sustainably. Sadly I think the chance of a smallholding is a long way off (if at all) but something I'm still determined to try and work towards. I love my current job, but I don't like the idea of being sat at a desk doing accounts/finance all my life, though I do think a financial brain may come in handy when trying to budget on a smallholding. As mentioned earlier, hayfever and only fairly recently moving has scuppered plans this year for growing much veg, but I did however manage to grow Peas, Mangetout and Runner Beans successfully in some large pots until we can dig over an area of the garden for a more permanent veg bed. I've also got some pumpkin plants coming along nicely. My best plants this year that I've grown are my herbs. They're in a nice dry sunny spot under the Buddleia tree and seem to love it there; I've got Rosemary, Mint, Apple Mint, Sage (my favourite herb), Thyme, Lemon Thyme and Chive. I've cooked some lovely chicken breasts stuffed with fresh herbs and we've had lovely potato salads with home-grown chopped chives. They've come on really well anyway and are finally starting to look like they're filling out the herb bed areas I've made. I'm getting there with the gardening anyway and it's certainly very therapeutic pottering around in the garden, I hope to plant lots more next year.

 

One of my herb gardens

 

Finally, I'd just like to share a couple of photos of my Dahlias. This is my first time growing these and they really are stunning. I am however angry at the Black Fly that seem to over-take the white Dahlias in my garden. Thankfully they've left these pink ones alone!

 

Hopefully I'll have some more gardening updates for you soon - nothing too spectacular as we only have a humble little garden at our two-bedroom terraced house, but I'm making the most of it nonetheless. Start small and work your way up is what they say... :-)