It's raining today, and cold. It rained yesterday too, and during the week, and it hasn't been at all warm. It is a totally new month apparently - Junevember - and it's got to be real as someone did a cartoon about it, which I have shamelessly nicked!
The weather has meant that gardening is limited to dashing out when at all possible to attack things that are growing too well and shouldn't be allowed to continue (grass, weeds, the grape vine), sighing over the things that should be pushing away with rare vigour currently and aren't (sweet peppers, courgettes, butternut squashes, chillies) and taking solace in flowers that are happy and having a longer season than we would expect (wild orchids are a good example). Today I spotted a new one at the Orchard, hiding in plain sight among a bunch of pink clover that has now gone over.
One couple we know were delighted to see me as they had two gluts, white asparagus and alstromeria - I couldn't leave without an armful of each. So very kind and the flowers, assuming a cat doesn't eat them or smash the vase, will last for ages!
The lack of heat, and more importantly the lack of sunshine, have an effect on the morale, but yesterday I rescued a trail camera that I had left in place for a couple of months as a way of doing something productive with the day. My initial assessment, without wearing glasses, was that I had messed up and that there was going to be nothing on the memory card, so it was a pleasant surprise to find 599 files, when I looked at the card via the computer and wearing glasses. Just a random sample of files showed that while I had yet again managed to turn off the video recordings, that wasn't until after about 6 weeks in situ, and there was a lot of activity including film of the blasted coypu.
Today I have been through all the files having a first look through - there is some juicy stuff in there for future blogs. There is also a hunt chasing a deer and a boar two months after the season for "big game" closed - and from the noises off, I think they caught up with the boar. As we have had other footage of a boar with a damaged leg, it would appear they didn't kill it, and the corpse by the main road is probably it - or was as it is now just a smelly black patch. The audio didn't include a gun shot, but if it was a fox hunt, they wouldn't have had the right ammunition to deal with a boar with them. It's all very complicated. Anyway, I think this is who they were really after!
The little crossroads that the camera was by is very tight - the path across is mainly for ducks and coypu and the water rail to go from one pond to another, while the path up to the tree is fine for me, but peters out a little way further on, at least for me, because boar, deer and badgers use it.
The tree is popular with birds - there is more than one picture of a woodpecker on it, although this is my favourite.
It is a favourite with the boar, but that needs film and I haven't got the will to battle uploads to YouTube today. The deer like it, not just the doe but also a rather nice stag.
Best of all, it is a fun place for the pine marten to climb up! How I love these fellows!
I need to spend more time with the files - there is a whole article about boar to be written, and another about coypu, with lots of photos and video to accompany them. So I will leave you this week with a slightly unhelpful photo of one of the common visitors to the crossroads - the Lady Mallard.
Have a good week!
Comments