The Garden
Summer 2008
Apple blossom (left) - bramble blossom (right)
We've been lucky enough to have a blackbird pair nest in a small fir tree we have in the back, I could never remember why I wanted one where it is but now the reason becomes apparent!
It can't have been more than a week since I could first hear the chicks when they were being fed until they fledged.
There are three of them as far as I can tell - after a single day of being out of the nest, one of the chicks has managed to find its way from the back garden of the house to the front garden. No mean feat - either it would have had to go over the roof, or it would have had to go over a 8 foot wall onto a pavement next to a busy road, make its way up the road the full depth of the house and go round the corner into the next street and over a set of iron railings into the front.
Gorgeous birds, on a couple of occasions when I was young, me and my sister brought up a rogue blackbird chick which had somehow lost its family. They are very friendly birds, with an unmistakeable song which is often referred to in folk songs as being a very beautiful song.
Spot the frogs! Lots of frogs this year.
Below: a mayfly on an apple leaf, and below that, detail of the mayfly.
More to come . . .
