Watch The Birdie

 

We love our birds and keep them in food all the year around.  Right now the goldfinches are away, but the blackbirds have returned to their winter quarters.  Because the normally reliable crab apple crop was so poor this year we have supplemented their supply with apples and more recently pears (which they love!).  The sparrows have been muted in the cold snap but there are always pigeons, jackdaws and magpies who swing by to mop up the day's supply.  Another bird that has got wise to the congregation js this sparrowhawk.  Just the other day a pigeon was taken and dismembered in our garden leaving feathers al over the place.  Nature in claw and beak!

Oh Oh - We're in Trouble

 

Context is everything when it comes to raptors.

This lady sparrowhawk was sitting in the plum tree where we hang the bird feeders...

...and had already feasted on a kill.

While I agree with Monty Don on most things (garden centres and peat compost for example) there is a limit to my tolerance when it comes to predating on small songbirds. One is enough! So out I went to photograph it away.

For light relief I headed off to the allotment to harvest carrots. Some of them are whoppers and only a few are forked.

I am about halfway through the crop now. The net was originally to keep the carrot fly away but now serves as frost protection.

For the record, here is the first parsnip of the year - and that's my first celeriac, destined for a warming Winter Casserole of Vegetables.

Now a return of the music in honour of our visitor:

Good Golly, Big Cauli...

Growing caulies has always been a bit hit or miss for me - mostly miss.  This year I gave Clapton a go.  There was no sign of them a week ago but 5 heads have appeared in unison.  I picked these two each weighing in at over a kilo.  The timing of these is ideal from a school garden point of view.  The All The Year Round we grew there produced some good heads too this year but that was right in the middle of the school holidays (Scotland's schools go back over two weeks earlier than English)

Another surprise (and hence the poor quality snap - also it was raining) to spot a young sparrowhawk on the birdbath at home.  The residents were understandably perturbed.

Blood On The Snowdrops

Recently I have been taking a couple of trays of onions outside daily to catch some sun.  I sowed them in January and now they are clogging up the propagator/sunbed.  I plan to move them to the (unheated) greenhouse as soon as practically possible, but I don't want to shock them so things are in abeyance.  Today has been a no go day as although the sun has appeared for brief intervals snow showers have followed in short order. So I am inside wondering why all the birds have gone quiet when I catch sight of this.

The dreaded sparrowhawk has returned and downed a pigeon.  I guess they are hungry in winter too.  (If it had been a sparrow I would have been more upset.)

Here is a suitable song for the conditions:

Catch Us If You Can

We have a colony of house sparrows who hang out in our garden hedge, particularly on sunny afternoons.

There are over a dozen of them but it is difficult to capture them on "film". So when they ventured up to the highest branches it was my chance.

I wasn't the only one to notice.  The sparrows disappeared in a trice when this chap showed up.

Postscript. The sparrowhawk turned up again the next day when I was out in the garden and dive bombed me on his way out.  I couldn't believe he would attack me but still found myself flapping my arms just to be on the safe side.  A fearsome sight.

Tunnel Vision - Innocent and Guilty

There is so much happening just now (what with Spring and all) that I am in danger of giving up on my blog. But right now it is raining. So here's a catch up:

Although I've lived in Edinburgh for 3 decades and explored most corners of it I was taken aback to come across this tunnel on the Innocent Railway (now footpath) connecting Duddingston with St Leonards districts of Edinburgh.  It is claimed to be the first railway tunnel in the UK on Edinburgh's first railway and is over 500m long.

Footpath Sign

The name is said to come from the exemplary safety record of the line. Either that or it's picturesque route or sedentary speed.

This is what the tunnel is travelling under:

Holyrood Park Salisbury Crags

If you are up for the ride you can travel through the tunnel at the following link:

Bike Journey Through Innocents Railway Tunnel 

and if you are keen on that sort of thing you can also travel back in time to do it by train at the following link:

Innocents Train 1968



Back at the plot I was mightily disappointed when I dug up the second of two drainage pipes planted with horseradish a couple of years ago.  Instead of a thick stem I got two foot of spaghetti strands:

A single six inch thong has been planted up in a tall container in the hope that a richer mixture might produce a better result by this autumn.

While I'm at it here is a snap of a guilty female sparrowhawk that appeared in our garden on Saturday.  It is standing on a pigeon it has just killed on our lawn and taken to a quiet corner of the garden.

And here's the nervous sparrows keeping an eye out for the intruder from the relative safety of a hedge.

On one previous occasion a sparrowhawk did a divebomb raid on the same hedge and made off with a sparrow, upsetting all who witnessed it as we were gathered around the table by the window at the time.

Innocents JCC poem/song

When You're Smiling...

The weather has turned and we are getting a last bite at summer. After going into shock in August some plants  are getting a welcome reprieve or a chance to ripen on the vine. 

Tomatoes

Sungold has been a a favourite as it even succeeds in Scotland and is ultrasweet.

Sadly we have experienced some "grinning"  for a second year. The books suggest that such skin splitting is due to temperature variations.  And while recent days have been sunny night temperatures have been low.

The only other variety I have grown this year was sold as San Marzano -  I've recently concluded that I was sold a pup. These are not plum tomatoes by any stretch of the imagination. They're not bad, some are ripening now, as you can see, so soon we will see what sort of sauce they make. Some of them have split too.

Others plants benefiting from the respite

Sunflower "Little Dorrit"

Fig Leaf Melon

The warm spell has come too late for the cucumbers...

..but it is tailor made for Autumn Raspberry Joan J.

 Here's some other random pictures.

Our local mob of tree sparrows got a nasty shock the other day when this visitor turned up

Sparrowhawk

 I've had some queries recently about my brick beds. Well they're still going. Here's the late sown salads.

Another subject that I haven't mentioned in a while is baking. Here's a Boston Cake - 7 Cinnamon Buns baked together. A surefire winner.