A FINE NATURE WALK

January 25, 2020 | gaiainaction

On this fine Saturday afternoon, two of my grandchildren and I decided to go for a walk on a land that leads towards the townland of Milland and to Russagh Mill Hostel. It was a fine distance and totally in pastural land. Ruben had come with his binoculars and his notebook, he wanted to draw some pictures of what he would see and find. Alice wanted to take photos of anything that would please her eyes; leaves, trees, plants and ourselves. I merely wanted the walk in nature and to see plenty of green countryside. (and take phots of course). We were not disappointed and between climbing some roadside trees and rocks and walk at leisure we had a wonderful time. I did not climb the trees though.

Laneway running towards the townland of Milland, a part of Skibbereen

Nice to see the land being tilled, I wonder what crops will be grown

Ruben picking little flowers for his collection

This is where the laneway stops or becomes private and then this Boreen connects with Russagh Mill Hostel.

Some of the trees along this lane are very beautiful, even if only in silhouette

Ruben is drawing what he sees in nature, a leaf, a flower

And here is what Ruben drew in his copy book.

Alice has picked dandelion leaves for the canaries

The grass was so very green and the landscape flowing

I was delighted when Ruben got out his copybook and pencil and started to draw what he saw, though I had to watch him as he plonked himself into the middle of the laneway at first and there might be the odd car passing. He was totally oblivious to all that, just wanted to do his thing. He is such a delightful boy.

Our walk took us over two hours and was well worth it. Towards the end Alice picked some dandelion leaves which she wanted to give to our two new canary birds. We came home and made a big pot of spaghetti Bolognese which was soon emptied by my now hungry grandkids.

What better to do on a January Saturday 🙂 we loved every minute.

BLACKCAP FEMALE BIRD

January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 | gaiainaction

New to our bird feeder is the blackcap bird, a female. She has been visiting the garden now for several days running. The first thing that took my notice was the hump on her back, I thought oh what an unusual bird, maybe it is deformed, but then I also noticed the sharp beak and the chestnut brown cap on its head, and I immediately knew that we had a bird not seen on our feeders before. I have not yet heard it and am curious how its song will sound as people tell me that the Blackcap has a nice song, and the guidebook describes it as a series of melodious warbling notes.

Yes she does like the seedcake and I see her more on that than on the peanut feeder. I read that she will have one or two broods per year, laying four to six eggs at a time. What I found interesting is that this little bird would be a summer visitor from Africa and that over the last 25 years Blackcaps have been overwintering in Ireland in increasing numbers, but apparently they come here not to overwinter from Africa but from other colder European countries, meaning that they are a different breeding population. These Blackcaps from the population that breeds in Central Europe migrate here to Ireland to spend the winter.

Even here in this country they will breed in mature hedging which is exactly what surrounds our garden, so I hope that they will indeed breed. Blackcaps are found where there are a lot of Ivy berries and indeed in our Boreen close by there is a wealth of Ivy and the berries are plentiful this winter.

Actually I just came across this YouTube video and was delighted to hear their song. Reference: Blackcap ~ Eurasian Blackcap ~ Bird Call ~ Bird Song ESL and Popular Culture

Birdwatch Ireland also tells me that the majority of the Irish Blackcap population migrate south to winter in Iberia and North Africa. But that there is a small wintering population, mainly in the east and south of Ireland, and it appears that this is what our female Blackcap is a part of.

January is a good month around here for birdwatching and as we are feeding them we see a lot of them in the garden. We have residential Collared Doves, many Finch, many Blue Tits, Dunnocks, Sparrows, Robins, usually at least one wren, Blackbirds, Jackdaws and Starlings. Overhead are flying Seagulls, rooks and hooded Crows. It is amazing the diversity found in an urban garden. One type of bird that I would love to see more of are Thrushes, but they sadly disappeared from our gardens years ago.

BEAUTY OF FUNGI

January 12, 2020 | gaiainaction

These brown and white false turkey tail fungi are presently growing on the cut off but very much alive trunk of our chestnut tree. They surprised me this Sunday morning while taking a stroll around the garden, and I thought they looked beautiful. The garden at present is very wet, but to my delight tender new growth is appearing everywhere.

HAGAR QIM TEMPLES

January 11, 2020 | gaiainaction

Revisiting one of my earlier blogs while we stayed in Malta.

agoyvaerts

Well worth to go see, and very interesting during a visit to Malta are the Hagar Qim temples in the SW of the island. It is a well worked archaeological site, some of the features are copies and the originals can be found in the archaeological museum in Valetta.

I always try and get the ‘feel’ of the place when visiting an ancient site, but here I felt nothing special. The site is very close to the sea, and very windy . There is a lot to learn about these megalithic temples, the site consists of a group of monumental megalithic buildings dating back to the late Neolithic period around 5,000 years ago. As stated in a leaflet available at the visitor centre, there is little know about these buildings. I for one wonder why there were altars, what were they used for? Another question is whether the courts had corbelled…

View original post 114 more words

BLESSINGS

December 31, 2019 | gaiainaction

Myrtus apiculata — Wishing all my dear friends, followers and readers all over the earth a blessed, wonderful, joyful, loving and peaceful 2020 ~ let this coming year help us to bring clarity in whatever we plan, wish for, and do. And wishing everyone a lot of pleasure in writing many brilliant blog posts.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

THOUGH NATURE IS MEANT TO BE ASLEEP, I SEE MANY SIGNS OF LIFE

December 29, 2019December 30, 2019 | gaiainaction

20191229_122645

Our garden does not know whether it should be asleep or begin to wake up. On this peaceful and last Sunday of the year 2019 I took a little stroll to check on my vegetables and herbs. So far it has been a mild winter except for one morning when all was white with frost. We did have more than usual rain though, and one or two real destructive storms which blew over our bird feeder and destroyed it.

I found that the few bean plants which survived being served as someone’s dinner (the slugs), are doing rather well, the spinach and the kale are doing great too. Among the herbs the oregano, thyme, sage, and rosemary are all thriving. The rosemary is even flowering, but then it flowered all summer too, perhaps it is an everlasting flowering type 🙂

The Camelia that I planted out weeks ago has buds and seems happy where I put it. The Californian Lilac is also doing great and I cannot wait to smell its flowers, and to look upon the red Camelia flowers later when spring comes along. Bulbs are pushing through the still very wet soil. And the young Californian Poppy plant I found fresh and green, early flowering is expected. It is always nice to take stock of the garden around the start of a new year I think, and to start planning.

A tender young Lupin plant has pushed through some leaf covering. And the Rudbeckias that I have been carefully tending since last spring when I sowed them, are so far doing fine, I hope that they will become strong plants and I know that they will last for years as I used to grow them before.

But I wanted to look a little further than my own garden today and took a walk through the Boreen and further-a-field. Planning has been received and work has started on building 50 houses for a social housing scheme. This will mean that from next year onward we will be surrounded by houses, whereas up to now we still had so many fields. But I understand that housing is needed badly and that the plan for rural Ireland is to have satellite towns and not much housing in the countryside, this to give easy access to all utilities without too much need for new infrastructure. Anyway that seems to be the plan for the future and the future is now. While walking the Boreen I found beautifully fresh and healthy Yarrow plants, I also found that the Gorse was flowering, and that the sweet little plants of creeping Hypericum are still intact and have not been affected by the wet weather.

20191229_151654

There had been a certain quietness around the place here with some neighbours away over the Christmas period. The land was also quiet this afternoon apart from some starlings, a wagtail and a thrush that I saw along my walk. Year’s ending has that certain feeling about it in nature, a stillness that is a promise of new life and activity to come. I like it.

Along my walk and in the Boreen, Yarrow, Creeping Hypericum and flowering Gorse.

And so we enter the last days of this year. Tomorrow my grandchildren and their mum and dad are coming to open presents, that will be lovely. The rest of the week will also be spent with family visiting and so we will enter the new year surrounded by loved ones.

BLESSINGS AT CHRISTMAS TIME

December 24, 2019 | gaiainaction

~ May your Christmas sparkle with moments of love, laughter and joy ~
~ Christmas blessings on each and everyone ~

CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

December 22, 2019December 23, 2019 | gaiainaction

It was the beginning of spring of this past year that I decided to let our garden become an Ark, and to let everything that wanted to grow be there without interference from me. And it worked, the garden became one large ecological wonder, Thistles, Foxgloves, Nettles, Comfrey, Dandelions, and so many more wild plants seemed to be in competition with each other to produce the most foliage and flowers. Needless to say the garden became a haven for insects and the butterflies were found in abundance too. Everyday I was out there filming and taking photos of all these delightful creatures, too many of which I don’t quite know the proper name of. First time seeing the Orange tip butterfly and also the Meadow Brown. At some point the Leek flowers were visited by several Peacocks, Red Admirals, and Small Tortoiseshell butterflies. Besides the ordinary Whites I also had a visit of a Green Veined White, and of course not to forget the Painted Ladies of which there were several this past summer. I had a Meadow Brown which was also a first here in the garden, and of course the yearly Speckled Wood. Such a delight!

At some stage there were numerous Tortoiseshell, Red Admirals and Peacock butterflies on the same plants in a rather smallish area, they seem to love the flowers of the leeks which I had let grow out.

And then there are the Hoverflies and the Bumblebees, and the honey bees, I am afraid that I still have issues with identification, maybe I might have some time during the winter to look over my photos and do some identification, I would love to know more about them all right, and there are good websites to help me.

Our Mediterranean Oregano plants are absolute winners when it comes to bumblebees.

Several times during the summer I have had to step in to help rescue bees. A little honey later and they fly off again.

Some more insects, we had so very many shield bugs, various types, and some other creatures that I am not sure what they are.

Caterpillars galore, one or two of them became chrysalis, interesting to watch.

This photo shows what was like a little invasion of creatures but my photo is too unclear to identify, it was an amazing happening I thought.

And even though we had such an abundance of creatures in the garden in this past year, I am having to re-think my gardening plan for this coming season 2020, the reason for this is that by now the garden is totally overgrown. I have let it get out of hand and now will find it hard to find space for vegetables, the growth has been so enormous and so I will be planning differently but still with insect life in mind.

Let me know please what you do in this regard, do you just let every wild plant grow where it wants, or do you keep some order in your garden or plot. I would be very interested in learning from your experience my friends. Thank you.