This tree is not dead yet

Some decades ago we planted a Cambridge Gage. One of the branches started looking sick and was first pruned, then, the next year cut off completely.

A few years later, one very wet summer, it fell over so that one branch was touching the ground..

We froze as many of the greengages as possible, thinking the tree would die.

But still it cropped and either I picked them or if I was on holiday Ruth did.
Insects started eating the dead wood where the sick branch had been cut off, but the other side of the tree was fine.

Last summer was a good year for plums and it had a heavy crop. It fell over so that it was flat on the ground, the hollow trunk cracked across. I propped up as many drooping branches as possible so that the gages could ripen. And decided not to cut it down until Spring. Not much hope.

But now look at it.

It needs some pruning work, but (weather permitting) I should still get fruit.

harvesting apples

Today in the garden we picked apples. We got a huge one that weighed thirteen and a half ounces. It was a Bramley cooking apple. Tom climbed the tree to get the best apples. Tom picked the last Laxton superb and a red Worcester and ate them,

A busy day in the garden

Today we looked for butterflies in the garden we saw peacocks ,red admirals, speckled woods, painted lady, comma ,  and cabbage white.

Tom helped to make a path through the nettles.
Then Tom picked figs and blackberries while Granny cut down the long brambles that were trying to fill the whole garden.

Yesterday Emily helped to pick plums, Tom picked more today.
Then Tom made some crumble to go with the blackberries.

Outside the garden

We went bird watching we spotted a buzzard while we were driving.

Then at Burton Mere RSPB Granny and Tom saw

Mallard ducks

Grey heron

Coots

Moorhens and their chicks

Little egret

Canada geese

Avocets

Lapwings

Black tailed godwit

Blue tit

Robin

Wood pigeon

Tom's favourite was the moorhen chicks. One of them was walking over a lily-pad.

While we walked along the path we saw a lot of bird poo all splatted under some trees. There were lots or blackberries, Tom ate some. We saw brown dragonflies. In the trees there were a wooden woodpecker and two very big wooden bats.

When we got back Tom looked in Granny's garage to see why the car had to stay outside. There were swallow's nests and lots more poo. 

Granny's washing line

Sometimes there is washing on the washing line. But one day when granny walked into the kitchen she saw the line waving about because a big bird had just taken off from the clothes prop. Dave found a picture of a buzzard

Granny didn't see it properly before it flew away but that might have been what she saw.

The last week she was in the kitchen making jam at half past nine, just before it started to get dark. There was a big owl on the clothes prop, with feathers sticking up like ears. It stayed there looking in while she got out her bird book to see what it was.

Picture from RSPB guides

She read about it and found that they are usually hard to see.

Funny leaves

Emily was helping to pick blackcurrants and noticed that the leaves on some of the bushes were all crinkly.
Granny found out that it was currant blister aphid.
Picture from RHS website

Rhubarb

The rhubarb is growing well. Emily and Tom like pulling stalks to take home. Emily remembers that last year I put the leaves in my potato trench as green manure.

There are newts and frogs wandering round the garden. Bit dangerous sitting on the concrete drive or path though, I moved one frog from near the garage door onto the grass, then had to move him off the path.

Granny and Emily were looking out of the window and Emily saw a bird. It was very big. It landed next to the pond. It was a heron. Granny had never seen a heron in her garden before. Then it flew away. 

picture fromrspb bird-and-wildlife-guides
Next we watched a blackbird having a bath in the pond. It splashed and splashed.

A soggy afternoon

Granny and Tom tried to clean out the pond today.

We raked out some grass, leaves, moss, green slime, and Tom pulled out some roots of the reed mace. No-one planted the reed-mace, it just came by itself - one plant at first but now it is all round the pond.

Tom pulled some of the furry seed heads off and looked at all the seeds inside. He sprinkled them on the pond, so there might be even more next year. Some people call them bullrushes.

Granny managed to stay dry - until Tom needed help pulling off his boots and emptying the water out, then got splashed.. But we couldn't finish the job - Granny's wellies were not tall enough

3 pheasants

We saw three pheasants in the garden.Two had  white collars.

                                                                                                                                                                          Like this one Photo: Jim Urbach/Audubon Photography Awards

                               http://www.audubon.org/news/ring-necked-pheasant-strutting-its-stuff                                                                                                                                                                             

The other had no white and it's wing was less speckled

                   https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/pheasant-195973.jpg                                         

we picked plums ,strawberries ,brambles and we ate some . We needed some peas for tea.  tom saw a dragon fly that was yellow and brown. Maybe it was a Black-tailed Skimmer female .    

we were picking bad greengages today we found 5 bad ones and 40 ripe ones.

 tom tasted one and it was nice, because it was juicy.

There were lots of butterflies on the sunny Buddleia plants. 4 Peacocks, 3 Red Admirals, lots of Cabbage Whites and 2 SpeckledWoods.
Tom helped finish digging up the potatoes, and picking plums. We found some ripe plums and took the bad ones off the trees. Granny used the step-ladder, but Tom climbed the tree.

We were picking plums today and Tom found a ripe czar plum and they ate it.

We looked for butterflies and counted 10 on the buddleia.
4 large white ,
1 speckled wood
1 gate keeper
4 peacock


We had a message about the butterfly count 2016.

big butterfly count 2016 Dear Mo, Thank you for taking part in big butterfly count 2016. You’ve done something really important today by sending us your sightings of 10 butterflies of 4 different species. You will help us identify changes in butterfly numbers as well as tracking migration and monitoring the impact of climate change on these delicate creatures. Here’s a certificate to show that you’ve taken part. We have some amazing butterflies and moths in the UK but many are suffering dramatic declines with some even facing extinction. Butterfly Conservation is the only specialist UK charity successfully taking action to save them. With your help we are working hard to secure a future for butterflies by protecting the habitats they rely on

Granny found the skin of a dragonfly.
Tom found a toad in our garden and we tried to keep it,so we could  show it to granny. But he showed her the photo instead. Granny found a baby frog trying to get out of a bucket of water, she helped it out and it hopped away..
Last week Emily helped granny pick raspberries and strawberries.
today we found some mushrooms.
Granny found an ants nest under a pile grass but when she moved the grass again today to show it to Tom he thought it was underground, there were adult ants everywhere, but no larvae or ants with  wings.

flowers

We walked round the garden and saw
periwinkle
snowdrops
primrose
crocus
winter jasmine
daisy
daffodils (mostly just buds but one with yellow showing)
keria
and a white flower that Tom thought might be the flower you make wine out of - but Granny didn't think it was because elder doesn't have shiny green leaves in winter. Maybe a skimmia.

Then Tom found a pile of sticks and built a den. One stick was so long that it reached higher than the apex of the shed roof.

Then we came inside and typed this - there were some very funny spellings before it was edited.

Blackbirds like fruit.

There are 3 cherry trees in Granny's garden. But the cherries never get ripe because the blackbirds and crows come and eat them.
This year they let the gooseberries, blackcurrant and even the redcurrants get ripe and Granny picked quite a lot to make pies, stewed fruit and ice-cream, and fruit salad. The  berberis flowers had turned into berries, and the blackbirds were busy eating those. Then last week they decided to eat the redcurrants instead. And when Granny went out to get some they had all gone.

An owl on the window

GrannyMo was reading in bed and Pat was curled up next to her, when there was a clatter. They didn't know what it was, Pat went to see if it was another cat, coming through the cat-flap to steal his food.

In the morning there was a mark on the window that showed that a bird had flown into it. We could see all the print of the wing feathers.
Dave took some photos - Granny went outside and held up a dark cloth so that it showed up better.

July 19th

We saw lots of Dragonflies by the pond.
There were turquoise blue damselflies flying about, some on their own and some in pairs. Like these perhaps.There was a baby dragonfly nymph in the water and one on a reed that was changing into a dragon-fly.*

There are a lot of reeds near three of the edges of the pond .
We saw a lot of water-boatmen with long arms like oars, swimming about.

There were lots of tiny black dots moving around. But we didn't know what they were.

We all saw a baby newt swimming.


* Picture by Andy Harmer from http://www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/content/biology-ecology