What a Lovely Day!

Unexpectedly, against the predictions of the meteorologists, yesterday was a beautiful summer's day. The sun shone, the sky was blue, there was no wind to speak of - the type of weather one expects in August, but which has sadly been elusive up till now.

Too late to plan a proper outing, but after I had dug a pair of shorts out from the 'to be ironed' heap where they had languished since before I broke my wrist Ty and I went to Churchtown for the afternoon. The tide was coming in fast and the current was very strong in the river. Ty had a very good swim, while I watched a couple of small inflatables making negative progress paddling down river towards Wearde. More by luck than judgment, I think, they got out of the main channel eventually, otherwise they'd have been in danger of spending the night in the Dandy Hole.

When we climbed back up from the shore Ty found a lovely toy; a rubber ring, but with a woolly coating like a tennis ball. We played with this all the way back to the road. I took it off him and carried it along the road and the bridle path, but as soon as we reached the playing field (last grass before home) he insisted on my throwing it again for him. Twice. The third time I threw it he just sat and looked at it. When he was sure I was going to pick it up, off he trotted homewards down the hill.

This was the third toy he had found in as many days. The first was a tennis ball up a tree at Latchbrook, but he lost that again by knocking it over a fence into some nettles. Despite his clear entreaties that I should rescue it for him it had to stay there, sadly. The next day, Friday, we were walking home from the library past the tennis courts when suddenly he had a brand new ball in his mouth! Nobody seemed to be looking for it, so it went in my shopping bag...

When we got home there was a note on top of my computer keyboard informing me that we were being taken out for a meal by Ron's brother and his wife. And a message on the phone saying the same thing, just in case I missed the note.

We went to a pub/restaurant which is only about five minutes' drive from home, but which I had never before set foot in. The food was good and the evening very pleasant. I took Claire's eating implement with me, but didn't have to use it; I was able to cut up my Cajun Chicken with a normal knife and fork, although I have to hold the knife a little awkwardly. In fact, I am finding that I am doing more and more each day and was feeling quite pleased with myself until Steph said how 'horrible' my poor arm looked! I suppose it does, but not to me. To me it looks almost normal again now.

As I type there is a young herring gull on the roof opposite, begging for food from a parent. What an odd season this has been - the nesting season should be well over by now. The sycamores have almost lost all their leaves now, and the silver birches are about half way there. Blackberries were early but not abundant, some of the rowans were really heavy with berries, others not, hips and haws are few and far between, as are hazelnuts, but the elderberries are doing very well, unlike the sloes.

Sushi Dog

It's been a long time since I've seen *really* fresh mackerel. Many years ago Ron used to go out mackereling, but they all but disappeared and we went away and nobody bothers much any more, certainly not on a commercial basis round here. Today Ron went over to Downderry, not to go fishing, but found that there were mackerel about, the sea conditions were ideal, and everybody who had a small boat on the beach had dug out their fishing gear and gone out to play. So he came home with a bag full, a present from a friend, still with their beautiful iridescent green and black markings - a wonderful surprise for supper.

Although we eat a lot of fish, it's mostly from supermarkets and cleaned and filletted before we get it, so it was the first time in many years that I had to actually process them myself. Not a problem; I wasn't sure whether my wrist/swollen fingers would manage, but actually I found it quite easy, heads and tails off and filletting (they'd already been gutted, of course), and grilled with a bit of grated cheese on. Delicious!

Dog was watching the process with quite intense interest, and Ron suggested I offer him a mackerel head. Not a good idea, I thought; he'll make a mess on the carpet, at the very least. But I was overruled and a head was put on a dish for him. After a couple of minutes tentative licking (and taking it out of the dish to play with on the carpet, the little ******) he suddenly decided it was edible and crunched it up, then came looking for more! The rest of the fish heads disappeared faster than the speed of light, and he then turned his attention to watching Ron very, very carefully to make sure he didn't drop any of the cooked bits on the floor!

In our fishing days we had cats, not dogs, and they used to turn their noses up at mackerel heads, cooked or raw. I remember, however, a day when we were given a salmon - I foolishly left it in the kitchen sink from where it was stolen by one of the cats and guarded ferociously when I tried to retrieve it. I think it's the only time I remember being growled at by a cat. The most I managed was to grab it and divide it in two so the cats could share.

The Sparrows Return

For the last three days there have been no sparrows - not in my garden, not in the silver birch trees nor on the fences, not in the hedge where most of them nest. No fluttering of wings, no chirpy contact calls, no arguments at the feeders, no fledgings begging, nothing. Well not quite nothing. Yesterday I did see one lone young sparrow accompanied by a blue tit and a pair of chaffinches, but that's been all. And most other birds have been conspicuous by their absence, too. The weather's been really bad and I could understand a certain amount of huddling and sulking, but it's been quite eerily quiet, and I don't like it.

This morning, however, despite the pouring rain I woke to hear sparrows chattering outside, and then a much more piercing sound - a flock of 19 starlings, plus one jackdaw, on the roof of Hugo's house opposite. And the sparrows are back just as if they had never been away. At one time I counted 15 of them all trying to get to the feeders at the same time.

I wonder where they went? Down to the woods, perhaps, to look for berries? I didn't see them there - in fact it has been just as unnaturally lacking in birdsong there as here. I suppose that now they are no longer tied to sitting on eggs and feeding babies the whole flock could be taking off and being more adventurous, but then I'd expect, say, the Broadway playing field flock to pop over here, and I didn't see any sign of them on the way to Churchtown yesterday.

After yet another damp day the sun has come out this evening and it looks quite nice out there. If only it would last...

Nature notes and oddities

The first Jersey Tiger Moth of 2008 came to my kitchen window last Saturday, and since then I have seen one every day - and they can't all be the same one fluttering round and round my house, because this morning I met one down at Coombe Park, by the creek. It flew past me and settled briefly on the side of a big white van before going into someone's front garden.

Once more this year the seasons are getting muddled, and flowers that bloom in the spring (tra-la!) are flowering again in a damp and depressing August. I have seen two magnolia trees in flower in the last couple of days, and an alpine in my garden, a kind of white Thrift, has also now suddenly produced three flower heads. We have an odd climate here - it never gets very hot or very cold, so things do happen at odd times. It's noticeable that some plants flower all the year round, or almost. Primulas, jasmine, fuschias and roses, among many others, go on and on unless and until we get a (very rare) frost to set them back a bit. Grass grows all the year round, as well, and the Hazels often have fruit and flowers at the same time.

My sparrows have suddenly disappeared. I haven't seen a single bird in the garden all day today. On the other hand, the rowans are full of birds - I saw great and blue tits, goldfinches, chaffinches, chiffchaffs and long tailed tits all in the same tree at the same time this afternoon. Only one tree is getting this treatment at the moment; perhaps it's the only one that's properly ripe. There are lots of blackberries now, and an elder down by the creek has ripe fruit, although higher up the valley they are still green. Sloes are changing colour, and I saw a hawthorn with ripe fruit at Churchtown yesterday. I hope the sparrows are just off feasting on berries somewhere and haven't decided they don't like my garden any more...

Jersey Tiger

Grey day, glorious nature!

By lunchtime it was raining even harder and getting quite breezy. I walked into the kitchen just as a Jersey Tiger Moth fluttered gratefully to rest and shelter on the upright of the (open)window frame.

Jersey Tigers are strikingly attractive day and night flying moths with bright orange (rowan coloured!) hind wings. When they come to rest they become a perfect geometric triangle with a perfectly geometric design in black and cream. They don't, officially, live in Cornwall, at least not according to my Collins Gem guide to butterflies and moths, which gives their only winghold on Great Britain as Devon. When I first saw one five years ago, on brambles in Farm Lane just outside Churchtown Farm, I was so impressed that I contacted the local moth society, who said they knew of just one colony this side of the Tamar.

Two years later, a Jersey Tiger came in through my office window one summer night and knocked itself out trying to get into the ceiling light, landing with a crash on the carpet. I rescued it and when it came round transferred it to the hydrangea just outside the front door. Last summer and the summer before I have occasionally caught sight of one fluttering around outside the house, both back and front, but this is the first I have seen this year. I do so hope that they are making a go of it here in Cornwall...

Rowans are Ripe

Rowans were the decorative tree of choice when this houses were built; they are on every corner and along every path. A few years ago, one of my neighbours tried to get the council to cut them all down, claiming that they were poisonous and a danger to her children, and it was only when I went on the Internet and found recipes for rowan jelly (eat with pheasant) that she stopped complaining.

This morning the weather has reverted to 'normal' for this summer - steady but fairly
light rain. We went down to the creek as usual; tide was in, one egret on the shore, one swan over our side and a gang of five over the other, all very peaceful and normal in the drizzle. I was looking at the egret when I caught a flash of blue. A kingfisher swooped in near the egret from some distance away on the other side of the creek, landed momentarily on the shore then obligingly headed straight for me, veering off into the greenery on the bank at the other side of the stream. I know there are kingfishers around by the stream and the creek, but I going down there with the dog and just passing through I don't see them very often at all, perhaps three times all this year. It was kind of him to oblige this morning when everything else was so damp and grey.

The rowans aren't grey, though, they are very definitely hot deep orange, and ripe. I know they are ripe because on my way back from the creek I surprised a flock of starlings helping themselves to the berries. Perhaps the same flock as came into my garden the other day, but more of them this time, about twenty I would think. When they saw me they quickly scattered into the trees on the edge of the valley, but quite a few of them still had their beaks full!

Churchtown Summer Afternoon.

Today the weather has been fine - for the first and apparently the last time for a good while. When I took the dog to Churchtown in the afternoon it felt quite strange to be wearing sandals and a shirt. Last time I was there, a couple of weeks ago, the meadows had just been mowed and looked very yellow; after the recent rain they are now quite green again. There was a small flock of longtailed tits, about a dozen, in the brambles - the first I have seen there.

One of the 'arable' fields, which are planted with various plants to provide winter food for the birds (teasels, barley, millet, etc) is full of thistles this year, and the thistledown was drifting across the various paths and meadows like snow - in one or two places it was actually forming drifts on the ground. Many, many butterflies, buzzards calling overhead, swallows flying high... a 'proper' August afternoon, in other words. But for tomorrow they are predicting heavy rain again over the whole country.

More Sparrows

This morning at the feeder, one daddy sparrow with two demanding fledglings. I'd thought there was another brood on the way as I'd been watching a few adults carrying food over to where the nest site is, so I was very pleased to see them. They may well be the beginning of the third wave of babies this year; I do hope so.

Good News and even more Good News!

Good News #1:

I went to Derriford yesterday to the fracture clinic, and they signed me off. I don't have to go there again, only to St Barnabas over the road for physiotherapy. They sent me home with a leaflet of impossible wrist and finger exercises an that was that. I don't even have to wear the splint any more unless I want to, and should try (carefully) to use the fingers at least, if not the wrist, a little more each day. All quite liberating and satisfactory.

I can actually myself notice small bits of progress - typing is now more or less normal, although I do not appear to be using my thumb (still the most swollen and painful digit) for the space bar. Unless I actually force myself to do it with the thumb, the natural space bar presser seems to be the middle finger of the right hand. Truth is, I can't remember what I used to use, before...

Good News #2:

Even better, this. The bone scan results say that my bones are perfectly healthy, not even borderline osteoporosis, and the wrist fracture was a genuine accident, not a trend! This is such a relief that even the weather seems to have improved. I haven't quite come back down to earth yet, and still have a silly grin on my face!

Bird Feeder Frenzy

Another soggy day. I went into the kitchen at 4 o'clock intending to wash up but got distracte by a noise I didn't recognise from outside - a loud whistled argument, much louder and more musical than sparrows. It was nine starlings all competing for breadcrumbs at the same time! A couple of days ago I saw one juvenile, still with his soft brown coat on, but these were mostly older, immature but not babies. Anyway, they constituted a small flock, which was nice.

As I was watching them, they were joined by another flock, this time of mixed great tits, blue tits and chaffinches, who were based on the silver birches outside the fence but came swooping in mob handed for peanuts and seeds. At one time I counted three blue tits and two great tits all on the peanut feeder at the same time.

And it didn't stop there. Washing up forgotten, I watched in amazement as more and more birds came in. There were a few sparrows, of course, but for the first time they were outnumbered by other species. A collared dove, a couple of blackbirds, a jackdaw, two magpies... Nine different species in all, all in my tiny little garden at the same time. When I first put the feeders up, only a couple of months ago, I rarely saw any birds from the kitchen window. Today, in the rain, a good variety. Hopefully later in the year when there is less natural food I should see even more. It's quite exciting, if bad for the housework!

Butterfly Bonanza

After two days of almost solid rain, today is windy with short heavy showers but sunshine in between. Somehow some sort of a signal must have been put out to the butterfly pupae, because the air is thick with small white butterflies. They are in the woods, in the gardens, and most especially in the buddleias on the edge of the path, hundreds of them. How do they all emerge at the same time like that?