Last week the Greens, this week @PAN_UK
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
1y ago
We’re all familiar with the roses which struggle on into November. I’ve remembered seeing some back in December in the 90’s and can recall my astonishment at seeing them then: winter roses. Long before I ever started gardening. But this year! For wildflowers to be reflowering in November, when it’s normally freezing – Well nice as it is (and hugely good for the fuel bills) there is/must be something a bit wrong here. It has a name of course – fairly innocuous sounding really – #climatechange. This term never seems to adequately sum up the disastrous melting of the polar ice caps, the flooding ..read more
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Olive Branch
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
1y ago
I’d like to extend an olive branch to any all readers of my last blog in case it was at the very least, very badly timed – complaining as I was on funeral day about our late Queen and Empress Victoria before her perhaps not having done as much as they might have, perhaps, to protect wildlife and wild spaces. (Prompted by the seemingly anodyne Great British Countryside spaces, a C4 film running on a loop which was supposed to be calming but which just happened to mention the peat and heathland being burned to encourage the heather beloved of the Grouse specially bred to get shot! I’m sorry but ..read more
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Me and ‘my’ Butterflies
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
1y ago
I haven’t seen that many this year…Just once during the #BigButterflyCount (July 17-Aug 8th – today) have I managed to spot 2 Peacocks and 2 (I’m pretty sure) Red Admirals…in any one count. Compared to last year when I regularly had 4 or 5 of each every day in July… Single Peacock into land They are no more ‘my’ butterflies of course than anyone else’s. In they fact belong to no one on this earth. It is however our responsibility to see that how we live, currently, is causing a drastic decline in these beautiful species, most of which are on the endangered list now….Which means they never be ..read more
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Looking for things to be thankful for
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
1y ago
in the Natural world around us Last time I wrote I was so…distraught, really, at the state of politics in this country and the world over, what with all the #climatecrisis denying behaviour going on. (As it is still – as if the climate was the only seemingly insolvable problem – a bit daft given that all the human pollution we continue to create is a contributory factor to that and proving a huge problem in itself to solve). It was local elections at the time – and the other desperation that came into play, a desperation that it’s so easy to give into at the moment, which is the seeming lack o ..read more
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Decry you die, Give you live
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
2y ago
Some musings on Consolation and Desolation in the world of Conservation First up, have to say it has rained very merrily since my last (very recent) post. And also have to say that so fixed was I on the MayDay MayDay theme that I missed the fact the 1st of the month has also fallen on the New Moon – the perfect planting time for new seeds! Now it’s even a bit warmer things are looking like really growing. Phew. However, a bit of decrying, being it calling out injustices and corruption, especially at local government level, has never been wrong. Until now. At national level, it is now apparentl ..read more
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#MayDay #MayDay
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
2y ago
Drought fast approaching This lack of rain is new to May, I felt, last year. Cold grey skies with lots of moisture in them, just passing by. It could be the moisture from the Rainforests isn’t what it was, that there just isn’t the water vapour (the billions of tons of it) there was, now that so many trees there have been felled. In the old days of yore and Books of Days, May was the merrie month, when all the ploughing and sowing had been done, after the desperately hard work of just surviving the winter. A time of courtship and merry making, mead drinking – a time to be looked forward to. Ev ..read more
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St Francis of Assisi I am not
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
2y ago
But I would love to be more like him. Giotto’s images of this early saint welcoming birds and conflicting animals (sheep and wolves?) are inspiring, not to say tantalising! To have birds feeding from your hands would be amazing – but then I guess back in medieval times birds might have thought so too, as they’d most likely fear ending up in a pie (such was the scale of human poverty for the most part – and abundance of birds!) Unlike today. Blackbird preening on the fence I’ve been really fortunate as a non-artist to be sponsored for #TheArtistChallenge which involves posting an art work every ..read more
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No Newts -but Frogspawn a-plenty
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
2y ago
I’d been so looking forward to seeing the newts again this February – their orange spotted bellies flashing through and lighting up the dark waters of my square pond again…for their mating season. But it wasn’t to be. Either they haven’t visited or I’ve completely missed them. Either way, quite sad about it. And a little bit mystified as to how I ever spotted them last year, in the dark! There is some good news, however. The other pond, the wildlife pond I dug February 2020 (during last bit of furlough) has finally succeeded as the birthplace of a whole pile of frogspawn. Wildlife Pond (frogs ..read more
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New Year, New Moon
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
2y ago
Cyclamen in snow last year – too warm this year so far New Beginnings!! Not quite sure what this means exactly – for me, or for the world, but there’s a palpable sense of excitement I’m feeling, for some of the possibilities… Also if I’m honest, for the chance to possibly see those flashing and orange dotted undersides of Smooth Newts again, come February – I can’t wait… Been putting off writing until now – though there have been other more unexpected wildlife encounters since last I wrote. For example 3 weeks before Christmas, during a visit from a friend who’d first visited in high butterfly ..read more
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Sheltering Butterflies, Caterpillars and Chrysallises
Annie's Wildlife Gardening Blog
by anniecj321
2y ago
Shed with open dooropen door policy Following up on a great suggestion from @save_butterflies I’ve been leaving my shed door open. Sure enough the other day a butterfly was sheltering up against the wooden wall at ground level. It’s no longer there. I didn’t get a photo. But that policy is working. It’s part of a wider plan also from Butterfly Conservation to encourage caterpillars and shelter the ensuing butterflies especially this time of year. Goodness knows we could do with some sunshine. Step 1 Encourage butterflies to lay eggs by providing popular food source for their caterpillars like ..read more
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