5th OCTOBER 2025

 

Our patio is enclosed by a walled raised bed.  This mess is the side to which I have given the least attention over the years.  

There are wallflowers, blue geraniums and Chinese Lanterns in there ... 

but they have been joined by large nettles, dandelions and a couple of sycamore saplings.  

The soil is also covered by dead leaves from a holly bush and a rather lovely mahonia ... both very spiky so not easy to pick up!

It took a while to dig out the enormous nettle root ....

.... and fill in an old rabbit hole ...

... and get the dandelions out of the wall ...

... but I now have room for some tete-a-tete daffodils. some grape hyacinth and a few small alliums.

When we first moved in I tried to dig out all the Chinese Lanterns ... I like them but I thought they were too tall for this area ... anyway as you can see I failed to get them all and they reclaimed the land!  Quite glad they did as they add colour at this time of year.

Today was a Vis Mig Day (Visible Migration).

  This morning we saw over a hundred pink-footed geese flying up the coast heading north.

 At the same time we were saying goodbye to the last of the swallows.

We haven't seen any for a couple of weeks then five appeared flitting about over the field obviously feeding up before their six week journey to South Africa!

After that awful storm we enjoyed quite a pleasant afternoon.

The butterflies were making the most of it:

Red Admiral .... Large White ...

.... and Speckled Wood joined me as I was clearing the raised bed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------