Resident Magpie?

On 07/09/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Birds, Garden / Allotment3 Comments

We’ve had what seems to be a resident magpie in the garden for a few weeks now. When I say resident, he doesn’t seem to go very far afield and if he’s not on the bird feeders, then he’s normally within sight – on the roof of our neighbours garage (which overlooks our garden), in the birch tree or somewhere nearby.

My feeling is that either he is one of this years juvenile birds or a much harried older bird. For a time he has a bald patch on the back of his head, which has since grown back feathers, but is a lighter colour than the rest of his “black” plumage, as there are other lighter patches. He seems to have the natural curiosity I’d associate with magpies although he is perhaps a little bit too fearless of us, when we are in the garden.

We’re not doing anything different to what we would normally be putting out on our feeding stations at this time of the year, but he does seem to be monopolising them, almost as if he doesn’t know where to find food elsewhere. This behaviour makes me wonder as to whether he was separated from his parents before they had a proper chance to teach him where to find food outside of our garden.

Crazy World

On 03/09/201503/09/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment, Simple Things1 Comment

I’m frustrated and a little angry about the world today. It seems to me that the world we live in is focussed on bigger being better. That we need to grow, increase, develop, expand, and basically live beyond our means.

Have I had some sort of epiphany? Some kind of change of mindset. Well no I don’t think I have, I just think that the world is becoming more focussed on these things at the expense of what is right; ethically, morally, sensibly. That the rich will get richer at the expense of the poor, who will essentially become poorer as a result. It seems that politicians, whether they are local or national don’t care or don’t understand or don’t want to focus on living with in our means rather than always trying to reach beyond them.

I know that I’m ranting a bit but I was watching the video below of a lecture given by the scientist and author Dave Goulson. It’s worth a watch.

Essentially his talk is about the use of neonicotinoid insecticides in agriculture and the unintended consequences on bee populations, who are an essential part of the growing cycle as pollinators. It’s interesting stuff, but my takeaway moment from the whole thing was his analysis of population growth, and the need to increase food production (which starts around minute 49 of the video, if you don’t want to watch the whole thing).

Essentially the current 7ish billion global population is set to increase to about 9 or 10 billion by 2050, and it has been said therefore that we need to double global food production to ensure that there is enough food for everyone to eat. However currently we waste of 40% of the food that we grow, so we are already growing enough.

Other key points are that acre for acre, gardeners and allotment holders get between 3 to 11 times more food from their plots than an intensive arable farmer.

Enough is enough and seriously the world is just plain mad if anyone thinks that this is an acceptable state of affairs. We don’t need to continue to grow and expand, just live within our means and accept what we have.

Rant over. For now.

Wet and Dry Sunday

On 23/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork

Out early for my dog walk this morning, the sun had yet to properly rise, but the sky was already looking quite red and foreboding. Seagulls were flying inland, which is often a portent to inclement weather.

Before 9am the heavens opened dropping big, heavy raindrops. Good for the garden and allotment.

I returned to the next article I’ve been preparing for my Regatta blog, got it finished and submitted and then thought that I would make some of the courgette muffins that I’d just been writing about. Thirty minutes later muffins are emerging from the oven, so that will be what I’d be having for lunch.

By 2 pm the rain was gone and the sun was out, and it was a pleasant, relaxing afternoon.

Allotment Video Update 22nd August 2015

On 22/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Video

Latest Regatta Blog Post – Micro Gardens and Allotment Video Tour

On 21/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Garden / Allotment, Uncategorized

My latest post for Regatta is now online. You can read it here.

Allotment Update & Swimming With Dogs

On 19/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Dog, Dogs, Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment, Simple Things, Wildlife/Nature

I’ve been a little slack posting here, so by way of a couple of videos, here’s an update on some of what I’ve been up to. I hope to have some news on the job front soon, and will cover that separately when I do.

We took the dogs to Emsworth for a swim yesterday. Only really the first time that Ruby has properly been swimming. The video is fairly low quality as I didn’t want to take my expensive camera out over the water with me, so I was using an older one, that I was less worried about dropping, but the quality isn’t as good.

Our garden seems to have become quite popular with a certain juvenile magpie, he’s taken a shine to one of the fatball feeders (rain or shine) and his acrobatics trying to get to the fastballs is quite entertaining. He’s fascinating to watch, particularly recently as he’s been trying to work out if he can dislodge the feeder from the tree branch to forgo his acrobatics (he hasn’t succeeded yet).

Surprise Buzzard & Sparrowhawk

On 04/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Being Positive, Birds, Dogs, Wildlife/Nature

My morning dog walks are tending to be a little longer at the moment as there is no train to catch to work (at least for now). The chance to take a little longer and walk a little further is good for my mental health if nothing else. When I get back I tend to sit down and look through the job alerts that have come through, earmarking any that I am going to submit an application for, and if there is nothing else to do (the last two days, I’ve been preparing a proposal for a client), get on with the applications.

This morning, just as we were heading for home, I heard a bird of prey calling. When I turned and looked up I saw first one and then a second buzzard circling. As I continued to watch a Sparrowhawk appeared.

I wonder whether she was hoping for some smaller birds to be spooked by the buzzards and then be able to swoop in for a meal.

Quite pleased with the camera phone photos above, cropped in google photos.

Being Positive

On 04/08/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Being Positive, redundancy

Yesterday marked an unusual day for me, for the first time since 1994, I found myself technically unemployed. I took voluntary redundancy from my last employer, after 17 years with them, and yesterday was the first working day that I have been out of full time employment.

Now I’m hunting for jobs, I applied for three yesterday as well as preparing a proposal for some self-employed work that I’ve been asked to do. The latter needs finishing today to submit to the client. I must admit, if I could make a living self-employed, then that feels a better option but it could be a feast and famine existence.

One things for sure I need to remain positive. Today is only day two, so it’s a bit early to see where this will go and how it will turn out. I believe the phrase is that “I have a few irons in the fire”, but they could all come to nothing. If they do, then I’m sure that something else will come along, but in the meantime, I have a proposal to finish; dogs to walk, washing to hang out to dry; and all other jobs to do around the home (& allotment)! I’m sure that I’m not going to be idle.

I Say Tomato

On 31/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Fork To Fork, Garden / Allotment

A Label That Doesn't Quite Reveal All — A Label That Doesn’t Quite Reveal All

I wasn’t going to grow any tomatoes this year. The previous couple of years, have resulted in such a dismal crop of fruit, that it really wasn’t worth the effort, so I thought I’d take a year off from tomatoes and just grow cucumbers instead.

That was until two separate people offered me a couple of plants. I changed my mind, not because I was particularly expecting any greater success, but because I thought I’d just give it a go, and I never like to turn down a gift of plants.

Now the first lot had the label in the picture to the left, not very revealing. The second, the person who gave them to me was honest and said, he had no idea what they were, but he knew he’d sown a cherry and a beefsteak variety, so they would be one or the other. So I took them, grew them on, and eventually planted them into their final spot, when the first flowering trusses appeared.

They’ve grown quite successfully, and I now have green fruits on both plants. It looks as though the cherry / beefsteak are in fact both beefsteak, or some kind of weird heirloom beefsteak, as they have grown some interesting fruit.

The others are slightly more interesting. They rapidly grew fruit, and at first I thought they were going to be the good old gardner’s staple, Moneymaker. However, something weird started to happen. The fruits grew to a standard tomato size and started to ripen, turning from green, to yellow. They did not however reach the red that you would expect from a tomato. Instead they seemed to hold as this golden yellow for days. Eventually I realised that perhaps this was their final show, so I picked one. Now slightly over-ripe, they were a great tasting tomato, but they were never going to be red, only ever a golden yellow.

2015-07-30 19.18.48 — Never Going To Be Red

I’ve still no clue as to what variety they really are, just that they taste great. Always a bit exciting to grow a new plant, even when it’s only the humble tomato!

Little Brown Job

On 30/07/2015 By TontowilliamsIn Birds, Wildlife/Nature

Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) are birds that are often difficult to tell apart at first glance, either because they are similar in marking or are juveniles and have yet to develop their adult plumage.

I was sitting at my desk this morning, glancing out of the window, trying to find some words to describe my mornings walk and deer sighting, when a butterfly passed under the window and paused on the grass outside. Basking in the sun it opened and closed it’s wings and seemed to settle for a period, to absorb what heat there was. I picked up my phone, to try and snap a picture.

I went into the garden, and carefully stalked my intended model, trying not to cast my own shadow across the scene and scare of my muse. Photo complete I returned indoors.

Now there was a time, when I could recognise most British butterflies on sight. Over the years, I’ve spent less time outdoors, and my skills have gotten more than a little rusty. As I was walking back inside I can remember thinking, that my muse was a Meadow Brown. As I posted the photo to Instagram and I was looking at the wing spots I realised that it wasn’t.

My muse was in fact a Gatekeeper, similar to a Meadown Brown, but with additional spots on the hind wings. My butterfly had become a LBJ of the Lepidopteran variety, and I am ashamed of my identification skills, although I did spare myself any embarrassment of posting a misidentified photograph online.

More time in the field I think.