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NERINE common names include Jersey or Guernsey Lily and Spider Lily

I was given this plant by a friend who was dividing hers, and to be quite honest it hasn’t done a thing, up until now that is. The other day I had quite a shock to see it flowering as it had been relegated to an out of the way corner of the garden. I must say it is beautiful and is an added a splash of lovely pink, which when you think of it, a colour not seen in abundance at this time of year in the garden. I believe this is Nerine bowdenii, a bubblegum pink variety.

Nerine bowdenii, sometimes called the Jersey Lily after Lily Langtry.

Others just holding on to flower in my garden are pale blue scabious, sunflower stella, salvia black and white, sedum, white gaura, white osteospermum and purple campanula.

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STRANGE PHENONOMEN

The other weekend when we had the rain showers and the gardens were full of glistening cobwebs I took this photo of my holly bush. When I uploaded the photo onto my computer I noticed what looked like a frog sitting on a branch, I went back outside to take a look but I couldn't pinpoint exactly which part of the bush I had taken the photo. I know on film you can sometimes get two pictures overlapping but this was on digital and my memory card didn't have any photos of frogs on at the time. What do you make of it, is it a trick of the eye and just leaf and stem, looking at it does freak me a little.

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MORE BIRD FOOD

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my posting Cats & Birds, they made great reading, my conclusion being to carry on as I have been, for me to enjoy the birds but just hope the cats don’t get to enjoy them too!

With this in mind I couldn’t resist a pack of these Gardman Hanging Feeders for Wild Birds when we popped into B&Q over the weekend, I like these feeders as you can hang them individually or stack them together and for under £5.00 I think they are quite good value for money, I have had these feeders before but not this particular selection:

Thistle Seed to attract Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Chaffinches, Coal Tits, Siskins and Bullfinches.
Robin Seed & Insect Mix to attract Robins, Blue Tits, Black Caps, Dunnocks, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Wrens, Finches, Thrushes and other species.
Blue Tit Seed & Insect Mix to attract Blue Tits, Great Tits, Coal Tits, Chaffinches, Greenfinches, Thrushes, Robins, Dunnocks, Black Caps, Wrens and other species.

Saturday 27th October is National Feed the Birds Day, designed to encourage people to feed the birds in their gardens. It is also a good opportunity for regular bird feeders to increase their feeding regime for winter. Feed the Birds Day is timed to coincide with the clocks going back as this marks the onset of the long, dark winter nights, when life can start to get a little harder for birds.

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CATERPILLAR

Are there any caterpillar experts out there, does anyone know what this is? I think I have read that the hairy variety of caterpillar are moths? I discovered it clambering over my alchemilla mollis when I was having a garden tidy.

CATS & BIRDS

Oh dear, today I witnessed one of the neighbourhood cats just having caught a bird in my garden, I know it is all part of nature’s cycle but I still get upset when I see it happening. The dilemma of mine is I like cats and I like birds, so I don’t chase the cats out of the garden and I encourage more birds into the garden. I do my best to site all my bird feeders so as not to make it too easy for the cats to pounce but they will still manage to spring upon unsuspecting birds on the ground.

I always worry when the fledgling birds are on the ground in the Spring, they are so vulnerable and they really can be sitting targets for a passing cat, but this year I was fortunate and didn’t notice any dead birds around the garden or in a moggies mouth.

Not being a cat owner, do cats actually eat their catch or do they just enjoy toying with it?

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HAITHS BIRD FOOD

My parcel from Haiths has arrived, I have treated my birds to a selection of goodies:

Bucket of Small Fatballs
Woodland Trust Forest Feast
Premium Wildbird Food

http://www.haiths.com

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AMELANCHIER SNOWY MESPILUS

The weather today has been lovely, take a look at that blue sky in the photo, and I spent about 5 hours outside in the garden, with quite a few tea breaks thrown in! I have accumulated debris enough for another trip to the tip, I do compost a lot of my garden rubbish, but I can only do so much.

Gardening should really be done in blinkers. Its distractions are tempting and persistent, and only by stern exercise of will do I ever finish one job without being lured off to another.
Richardson Wright

Amelanchier can be used as a shrub but ours has been left to develop into a small multi-stemmed tree. In Spring it has white flowers before these turn into berries, ripening from red to purple-black. The leaves change various shades of colour during the year until Autumn when they have this beautiful bronze leaf colour, it is deciduous but the bark gives character to the garden in wintertime. The blackbirds and starlings love the berries, adults and juveniles alike.

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AUTUMN

Photo taken in my garden after a morning of rain showers.

BLACKBIRD

The blackbirds seem to have been hiding just of late, but this afternoon just as it was turning dusk, I noticed four having a great old scout around the garden, they really do look humorous as they run out from the undergrowth, hurriedly poke at the ground and turn over the leaf litter to find insects or earthworms and then hurriedly run back to find cover again. There is a lot in my garden for the blackbirds to feed on, plenty of earthworms in my soil, lots of shrubs with berries on, and I buy dried fruit especially for them, so they will never go short.

Sing a song of sixpence a pocket full of rye
Four-and-twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie
When the pie was opened the birds begin to sing
Oh wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the King

I would have only had to of seen another twenty and I would've had enough to bake a pie with, only joking!

AUTUMNWATCH

Just in case you didn't know Autumnwatch is back on our screens on the 5 November, I really love it, and Springwatch too, I am afraid for the whole week I shall be glued to the screen at 8.00, so no blog postings then! I really like Bill Oddie presenting it along with Kate Humble, they make a great team. I wonder where Simon King will be this year, last year he was on Rhum with the red deer, it must be difficult thinking of another venue to top that, and remember the plight of the little baby seal, the supergeese and the lovely red squirrels. I can't wait to see what lovely little critters they come up with for this year.

picture from the web

Download Mini Oddie for your desktop http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/springwatch/minioddie/

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CORN

No this isn't my garden, it is the view from my dad's back garden, and what a view it is. He lives in Clapham, West Sussex on the edge of the South Downs.

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MORNING GLORY

The morning glory is native to tropical America. The botanical name Ipomoea comes from the greek, ips means worm and homois means being like, because of its pale, worm like stem.

No frost as yet so these two morning glory plants are still flowering, the pale pink is 'candy pink' and the cerise is an unknown variety as a friend of mine kindly gave me the seeds. If you leave them to go to seed they may become invasive around the garden, I don’t mind as I like them, but funny how I hate its common cousin, the dreaded bindweed!

Small quantities of substances similar to the hallucinogenic drug LSD are found in the seeds of some species.

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CATERPILLAR

Thought you may like to see what has been going on in my garden today, not much left of the nasturtium plants!

This is the caterpillar of the large white butterfly, they are usually found in clumps.

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HYDRANGEA - Thank you for understanding, Boastfulness, Heartlessness

At this time of year in my garden the hydrangea looks at its best, it seems to thrive with neglect, as it grows in the driest patch of ground and never gets watered, it lives on rain water alone, which I suppose this year it has had rather a lot of.

In most species the flowers are white, but in some species (notably H. macrophylla), can be blue, red, pink, or purple. In these species the exact colour often depends on the pH of the soil; acidic soils produce blue flowers, neutral soils produce very pale cream petals, and alkaline soils results in pink or purple.