Well, as you know, the weather has been fierce lately! We’ve had this (see above)
and this (see below)
so I’ve needed these…
and this:
and this to keep me warm…
but I haven’t forgotten my geranium cuttings! Remember my post back in August? You can remind yourself here. I’ve been nurturing those cuttings since then. Just before the first frosts came, I brought them into the cottage and put them along the window-ledge at the front where they get the evening sun. The trick is to keep them alive but not to encourage them to grow too fast. I don’t want them to get leggy. I water them once a week and that is enough. It is quite dry in the house and they dry out quickly, but they don’t seem to mind that.
This is what they looked like last week:
When I bring them in, they sometimes have a caterpillar among the leaves, so Dylan and I go caterpillar hunting:
The other day we took part in an RSPB Birdwatch. Click the link to read more about it. Basically, during the course of one hour, we were asked to observe the birds, which turned up in our garden and submit the results online in order to take part in a nationwide survey of the bird population. For example, we had to record the most number of birds of each species that we saw together during that hour.
All was going normally at first. We saw two blackbirds, two wood pigeons, two starlings, a robin and a magpie. Then all of a sudden! a whole flock of waxwings descended onto our cotoneaster bush and stripped it of all the berries. I counted 23 waxwings, which is an awful lot more than all the other birds put together. These gorgeous birds, pictures follow, come down from even colder regions, like Sweden and descend upon us at this time of the year. It is quite a new thing. I don’t remember seeing them in years gone by. Here are the pictures. The best pictures are here and the others I had to take through the window so as not to disturb them.
We have submitted our results to the RSPB and I’ll let you know what the total results were when they come out. Sadly there has been a decline in the bird population here in England. Some birds are rarely seen commonly anymore, but others have been on the increase.
So that’s a glimpse into my garden this week. The snow has gone now and been replaced by ferocious winds and rain. It really does feel like I’m living on an island. I never thought about that when I was living in Tennessee, but when I came back I realised that ‘yes’ we are an island race of people and we’re never very far away from the sea. Long may it continue so!
Oma
wow, you were so lucky to see them like this! They are just gorgeous. I’ll bet you were just beside yourself with excitement (I would have been). Once in a while we see a pileated woodpecker – and it’s mayhem, find the binoculars, everyone come see, be silent so it doesn’t fly away (and we can hear it call). Birdwatching is very engrossing!
We have a lot of birds here, Oma and I’m not sure why your bird populations are decreasing (although if some are actually increasing they may be able to survive where other can’t). Thanks so much for talking me for a walk through your world today 😀
Birds at chez rusty duck today as well, but nothing as exotic as waxwings!
Loved the pics of thewaxwings, and glad to see the mittens you had spoken of. Great stuff. Interesting about the birds too.
Tsk! An inch of snow!
Wonderful pictures of the birds. I would be interested in knowing which birds are on the increase and which are declining.