Some random meanderings

We have been here a few times without my having bothered to write anything, so this is to catch up.

I suppose I should put first the fact that we have buried some of pa's ashes in the middle of a group of trees up by the road: two well grown oaks, two birches and a rowan. There is a sort of belvedere there, with a good view down to the river over the tops of trees. As Kate was ranging around looking for stones for the cairn, she found some oak saplings, and when we looked carefully we found lots more, two or three that have been there for a few years getting bonsaied by the deer and some newer ones that look sturdy and have not yet been cropped. There are about a dozen and we will get some tree shelters for them before next winter. In the long term this will be a good spot for a touch of fencing.

I have seen an eagle twice now: once when I was just sitting in the car waiting to leave, and then this weekend when Kate and Livy were here. There was some scepticism about the second sighting but I am pretty sure it was not a buzzard. Eagles just look bigger, even if there is nothing to compare them with. They are also more oblong. The first one I watched for several minutes, and the remarkable thing about it was how it kept its wings completely still as it was circling round. It looked almost mechanical.

Otherwise, the usual birds are doing the usual things and the cuckoo has not changed her tune yet. There are swallows, but I am not sure where they are nesting. Not on the house. There are also bats and they may be roosting in the roof or under the eaves. We ought to get some bat boxes. Every little helps when it comes to controlling midges.

The bluebells are flowering amazingly down in the wood. There are thousands of them but the effect is very subtle as they are individually small and of such a dark shade.

The meconopses are also flowering in succession. There have been three out in this long weekend. The azalea has regrown from its roots, and so has the olearia, so they will presumably repay protection against the deer and the cold. As for the other alien plants: the Mourning Widow (half mourning, or rather one of her offspring) and the blue geranium whose name I forget are both flowering. The double white buttercup has flowered. The astrantias are holding on but not growing very fast. These are all growing in grass just beyond the terrace. Some rushes in that bed have succumbed to Roundup; but there are still more to be dug out. Down the slope from the south west corner of the house we have planted a yew seedling. The soil there was not too bad; and Roy heaved out several big stones with the pickaxe, which is clearly a vital garden implement here.

The rugosa roses at the top of the drive are mostly putting out leaves quite cheerfully, though some of them have been stamped on by the deer. In general, the raw earth beside the track is greening quite well, though the area around Klarg and the barrow just up the hill are still pretty barren.

EPW in June