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Interesting to read about the redwings – we have had them in the garden for the first time in the current cold snap.
The most "unwelcome" visitor we had in the garden last year was a sparrow hawk – we would not have minded normally but at the time of its visit it was eating one of the “semi-tame” collared doves who seem to have taken up residence in the garden.
I was at Chepstow when it happened and Mrs O phoned me in absolute hysterics saying there was “an eagle in the garden eating one of the doves.” I told her not to be so bl**dy stupid, it can’t be an eagle. So she took a photo and e-mailed it to me and the combined talents of the press room decided it was a sparrow hawk – later confirmed by the RSPB. I have to say it did look like a massacre when I got home, one guess who had to dispose of what remains were left!!
The joke here is the birds get better fed than me. In the garage there are two different 12.75kg bags of assorted seed. Some half dozen smaller bags of specialist bird seed, a bucket with about 100 fat balls and probably plenty more she hasn’t told me about. I’m too scared to count how many bird feeders we have in the garden.
As for the garden itself it is 100% Mrs O’s domain, once we get the lighter evenings she will be out there working until sunset almost every evening. She never stops and is always redesigning the garden – I knew I shouldn’t have sent her on the garden design course.
We used to have sparrowhawks; we have a cat pen from when we used to have Burmese cats and it looks a bit like an aviary so the sparrowhawks used to hang around thinking their lunch was about to fly out at any minute. Again, like the poor old woodpecker the sparrowhawk flew into the window and died. I took it to my neighbour to see if it was definitely an ex sparrowhawk
so I sent it away to a laboratory somewhere to be analysed for toxins etc. Never heard back from them; I hope it got there otherwise someone would have opened a rather unpleasant lost package several weeks later. I don’t know why we have no redwings these days; I was told that they were just stopping off as they were migrating to somewhere. Had a chat with the farmer today about the pigeons in the front garden [spent the whole afternoon cleaning up after them]. He said I have to throw pine cones at them when they roost or use a water pistol or a catapult. I wanted to say ‘James, I’m a girl, I don’t have a catapult’ but decided not to bother. I do however have a water pistol. I’ve got to hang out of the loft window every night and disturb them and after a few days they should get the message.Or I might fall out of the window in which case a bit of pigeon poo will be the least of my problems.
that’s a funny little story about the Sparrowhawk. Poor Mrs O
she obviously enjoys her gardening as much as some of us do…
I’ve never seen a Sparrowhawk to my knowledge and just had a look on the RSPB site to see what it looks like. I don’t suppose they’d be scared of cats.I bought some Lion Dung [Silent Roar] today as we have a cat problem. That’s a neighbour’s cat doing it’s business repeatedly, every single day. Strange cat, it digs a pit then just does it to the side and doesn’t bother burying it at all, so it just sits there, on top.
This pelleted deterrent I can recommend as one that really does work, which it should at about £8 a box. I begrudge paying it and it only makes the cat go elsewhere but it will keep it off for about 6 months and hopefully never return to mine.
I do think something should be put in place to deter their ownership – there are just too many of them for the good of nature but with some allowance for old people as they can sometimes be their only friends in life.
We too get hawk in the garden, several different varieties This is mole season up here but we don’t get moles anymore since I started p*ssing on their hills.
They are everyone in the Glen except our garden, I however annually risk a public decency arrestThe thing about cats is that they won’t use their own garden. My neighbour used to put milk bottles with bleach in to deter my cats but I don’t think it worked very well. Water pistols work quite well and they hate aerosols. A friend of mine never understood why his next door neighbour didn’t speak to him even though he used to shoot their cat with an air rifle. I started to have pedigree indoor cats with litter trays but it never seemed right a cat not having any freedom, so I am catless these days, but I do miss them terribly. To me a house isn’t a home without a cat, so the whippet is a cat substitute and sits on my lap watching television most nights. Interesting solution to the mole problem; haven’t had a mole in the garden for years. Often wonder how they keep moles and rabbits away from racetracks. The Irish don’t have that problem, do they?
the whippet is a cat substitute and sits on my lap watching television most nights.
I have a collie that does that, she doesn’t know how heavy she is!!
Interesting solution to the mole problem; haven’t had a mole in the garden for years. Often wonder how they keep moles and rabbits away from racetracks. The Irish don’t have that problem, do they?
The Irish drink a lot of Guinness which transforms itself nicely into mole replent
My gardening year started today – as it always does – with the sowing of onion seeds in the greenhouse. Big white ones (Stuttgarter Giant) and sweet red ones (Red Baron). Come March cabbages, sprouts, lettuce, spinach, rocket, radishes, kohl rabi…will be sown, and onwards through Spring with potatoes, broad/runner/borlotto beans, peas, broccoli, chard, parsnips, carrots, celery, tomatoes, courgettes, melons, squash, leeks, mixed salad leaves…and all the colours of the rainbow from marigolds, hollyhocks, lavatera, nasturtiums, sunflowers, cosmos daisies, coreopsis, delphiniums, poppies, sweet peas, antirrhinums…
A wonderful anticipatory few months ahead…
oh to be in England now that April is
(nearly)
here
The garlic planted last October has finally poked its head through, though has been very slow doing so this cold, cold winter
Those great winter staples: leeks, potatoes, parsnips, celeriac, kale and sprouts continue to satiate the appetite and it won’t be long before the first forced rhubarb and sprouting broccoli is ready for cutting
The raspberries, loganberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries remain dormant but soon…
the darling buds of May
Gardening is and always has been an all-consuming passion; one of which I never tire nor grow bored with…never never ever ever. The exercise, the peace of mind, the fresh air, the accompanying birdsong, the greenery, the produce, the love
There was a time when I retired to my greenhouse and ricketty, ancient, bum-polished chair with a flask of Darjeeling and freshly-ironed copy of the Racing Post but I’ve long-since stopped buying that rag and content myself now with watching the tree sparrows, dunnocks, greenfinches and goldfinches hogging the seed in the birdfeeders with the robins, blackbirds and wrens clearing up the chaff on the ground beneath…often to the accompaniment of a distant yellowhammer warbling his distinctive and corn-waving-in-the-wind evocative
little bit of bread and no cheese
song.
Songs, those sweet songs…the song thrush’s plaintive and beautiful lament was a defining sound of childhood but that auditory treat is now rarely experienced
on hearing the first cuckoo of spring
…on seeing the first seedling of spring…on hoeing the first weed of spring…on eating the first new potato of spring…on eating the first raspberries of summer…on digging the last old potatoes of autumn…on turning the first spadefull of winter
It doesn’t get much better than that
the good life
, the best life
Drone, my good man – you paint a beautiful picture. Almost enough to make me poke my head out the shed every now and then for a gander.
Mrs Grass, in a worlds first, has taken note of a TRF thread, and asks whether your greenhouse is heated, as we’re still getting a bit of frost up here, and she reckons it’s too early to plant onions.
Please note, I will not act as proxy on this thread for Mrs Grass, beyond this rudimentary enquiry. She can start a gardening forum if she wants to talk with like-minded potash spreaders.
^
..a quite delightful read Drone, and enough to warm the cockles of anyone’s heart during this chilly spell
Duly humbled at being asked advice from the green-fingered but I’m sure not horny-handed Mrs Grass Mr G, and you can report that I have a small paraffin heater which keeps the frost at bay but doesn’t heat the greenhouse; and that’s all onion seed requires to germinate. It is still too early for much else though
Gardening and NH are a mutually exclusive match made in heaven: the summer and winter games
So how will you spend BST my manure-mouthed friend, at Hamilton Park or out Hoeing?
And please don’t respond ‘neither I’ll be on the golf course’ that will never do
I wouldn’t know a trowel from a turnip, but that’s a really,really well written description of your garden, Drone.
Enjoyed that.
How much of Yorkshire is left for tourists?
Not much, MH and MW own what little I don’t
get off my land!
If anyone is interested in the one sided battle between the Sparrowhawk and the Dove I have uploaded some of the photos Mrs O took – after the worse of the deed.
But as our cousins across the water would say, viewer discretion advised, which is why I have not put the photos directly on here.
http://www.ostermeyer.co.uk/Sparrowhawk.html
http://www.ostermeyer.co.uk/Sparrowhawk.htmlPaul
Web site: http://www.ors-racing.co.uk
Blog: http://osterbeast.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/orsracingReport this postQuoteHow many more free ads can you get on a page Paul?
A lot more if I wanted to – but at least I don’t "advertise" my pay sites here, only the free ones!!!
A lot more if I wanted to – but at least I don’t "advertise" my pay sites here, only the free ones!!!
Are members really advertising their pay sites on here or is it one of your jolly japes?
What planet are you on Happy – where did I say others were advertising pay sites – once again you submit another pathetic posting deliberately twisting and distorting what I say.
Well you know what – you win – I give up.
I am sick to death of your supposed "witty" retorts.
So you will be pleased to know you will no longer have to put up with the “advertising” that seems to offend you so much as this will be my final post on TRF.
I genuinely wish the forum well – there are many good, honest posters on this forum who, although may not always agree, still remain polite and can debate robustly. Then there are others who spoil it for everybody else.
Paul,
If you are looking in, just to say I’m sorry to see you disappear and hope that one day soon you might return.
Happy,
As I started this thread with a very particular theme and generally I would have hoped one with little room for antagonistic behaviour, it would be nice if you contributed according to the subject matter. Otherwise not at all if you don’t mind.
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