Rainy Day Natter

It's such a cold and rainy day let's make a cup of tea, take a slice of cake, and have a natter.

I'm not sure why I started this blog in the first place; probably as an attempt to ward off boredom, but since its inception I find myself doing proper garden-y things (makes me think I should start a new on one the topic of ‘shiny swishy hair’, or ‘renovating an old Georgian farmhouse’).  It must be years since I sowed some seeds. It’s the sort of thing you do with the children during the long days of the six week holiday. But 3 months into Garden 65 and there is green manure sprouting outside and flower seeds erupting on the windowsill. At this rate I’ll be exhibiting in Chelsea next year. Maybe not.

I’ve also got a bee house (with no bee occupants, but there is still hope) and a mini herb garden via my friend Sally. It’s all abundance here, I tell you.





The desperate search for topics to blog about has also led me to look closer at the little things in the garden. I’m still fascinated with daisies.  Who would have thought such innocent looking flowers would produce seeds? It's quite shocking.

The insects of the garden are a new interest too. The common species like woodlice, spiders and ants have always been around but now I’m on my knees looking closely I’m discovering another world. I don’t think I’ve seen this little guy before. He’s a Varied Carpet Beetle. Unfortunately his larvae, commonly called a woolly bear, eat carpets and your favourite jumper, but we’ll let him live because he’s cute.

The identification of discoveries is fun. It usually involves intense googling and guesswork, but a couple of times I’ve used I Spot and have had amazingly quick results. A few days ago I snapped this tiny moth lying flat against the outside of the above window. He was difficult to identify because he was so indistinct, so today at 7 minutes past 3 I threw him to the lions of I Spot and within 8 minutes Douglas from Shrewsbury declared him a Green Pug. Which must be right because when I was Photoshopping my Green Pug he was going green but I thought that was the fault of my Photoshopping skills. I’m impressed.


Unfortunately Fate likes a good laugh. Now I've joined the ranks of garden bloggers one of the mainstays of the garden has caught a disease. An Amelanchier has started dropping its leaves which have suspicious black spots on them. Hopefully it’s just a bad year and whatever is causing it will not survive the winter. Us gardeners ... we have to be stoical.

So, I think that’s all the natter I’ve got for today. Who’s doing the washing up?