This year the first frost of the winter season was on October 21st. It was quite mild but decorated the garden beautifully. Overhead geese were flying north.
At the beginning of May we found a confused pigeon trying to get into the house. Looking up we realised it had flown into an upstairs window and was injured with limited movement in its right wing. We put food and water near it but it flapped away terrified and hid behind the garden shed for 2 days. We kept putting food. It began to move and then spent two weeks by our small pond camouflaged amongst the grey stones. It began to preen and stretch, eat and display to females and finally, amazingly, started to fly again. At first it managed small distances in the garden but by the end of the month was able to fly up to the big trees in the lane. A recovery we didn’t expect to see.
I had heard of New Forest ponies roaming free in the woodlands and heathlands but I was surprised to see how varied they are, ranging from tiny stocky Shetland-like ponies to almost thoroughbred horses. They seemed very ‘other worldly’ not responding to people to be fed or petted and were generally busy grazing. As a result the landscape was very neat.
My crocus flowers finally opened and when I went to photo them I found they were full of bees busily collecting pollen. I hadn’t realised how covered in pollen they get!
I found this orange ladybird on my harvest of spinach from the garden. Looking up about it I found that its systematic name is Halyzia sedecimguttata and that it eats mildew. It is certainly well camouflaged with autumn colours and first frost.
At the end of February I went to see the spring flowers in Braco Castle Gardens, participants in this year’s snowdrop festival. The flowers were nice, as were the stylish bare trees, but a lively red squirrel stole the show!
