Morning Dove. It's a bit blowy here, but we've had worse. It'll probably be bad for us tomorrow when the wind direction shifts a bit. I found the empty plant pot that I unwisely forgot to bring in last night, and the wheelie bin lids keeps banging, but hey, it's winter. It's nothing out of the usual way of things.
We had a lovely day out to the borders of hostafanland in the week.
My niece has been staying; she left yesterday and I noticed as I was standing in the drive to wave goodbye that the big old beech tree in our garden (my avatar pic) was full of starlings, making a real racket. Then a load more flew in and suddenly the noise stopped. Count ten, and they all took off again together and were gone. I remember when was a child in Cornwall watching huge murmurations across the winter sky. And then in Bath in the late 1980s, the tremendous noise as you walked down the main streets at dusk from the starlings all settling for the night. By the time I left Bath, at the end of the 1990s, you never heard them and I never saw those huge flocks from my parents' house by then. We've lived here more than 10 years now and I noticed maybe 5 years ago, a mini-murmur of a couple of dozen starlings swooping over the fields after the muck spreader had been. The numbers have slowly increased since then until now and they are really making their presence felt. Still not at the numbers I remember, but a small sign of hope, I think, that something is helping them to thrive again here
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
The wind’s picked up quite a bit here ... plantpots have been rescued and put in what is hopefully a more sheltered corner. It’s a bit tricky, as while we know which direction the wind is blowing from, because we’re at the bottom of what passes for a valley here in Norfolk, it swirls around a bit 😂
Live watching the starlings ... we get mini-murmurs here when family groups get together and roost in the reedbeds on the marshes over the hill. Lots too on the grazing marshes alongside the road between here and Gt Yarmouth and there are regular murmurations as they flock together to roost on and under the Wellington pier.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We live in Bath @raisingirl and have a small flock of starlings around the garden, they sit in a row along the telephone wires, squawking to each other, as you say quite a noise. I'm so glad @Pat E to hear you've got rain at last. We have as well this morning and it is very blustery but no damage yet as far as I can tell - one of the cast iron chairs on the terrace has blown over, despite me wedging it under the table foot - obviously not securely enough! Pots all seem to be okay.
Endless sheets of horizontal rain blasting along the valley below us and the big beech and fir trees are waving around fairly dramatically. The weather is coming in on our most sheltered side though so it is surprisingly calm at ground level. The garden birds are just getting on with life, giving the feeders plenty of attention.
Very strong gusts of wind and heavy rain here. Bit worried about my tall Ceanothus as there’s a top-heavy bit which will struggle to hold on if battered about too much. On a positive note - the blossom buds are on the Cherry Plum.
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I fell asleep lying on the bare concrete floor of a sculpture studio while a plaster cast was being taken of my face 🤣
So glad you can both relax a bit @Pat E ((hugs))
How’s the wind folks? It doesn’t seem too bad here, but apparently a large part of Norfolk is without electricity 🙄
Edited to add: Oooh! that was a big gust ... it made the house sort of creak!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
We had a lovely day out to the borders of hostafanland in the week.
My niece has been staying; she left yesterday and I noticed as I was standing in the drive to wave goodbye that the big old beech tree in our garden (my avatar pic) was full of starlings, making a real racket. Then a load more flew in and suddenly the noise stopped. Count ten, and they all took off again together and were gone. I remember when was a child in Cornwall watching huge murmurations across the winter sky. And then in Bath in the late 1980s, the tremendous noise as you walked down the main streets at dusk from the starlings all settling for the night. By the time I left Bath, at the end of the 1990s, you never heard them and I never saw those huge flocks from my parents' house by then. We've lived here more than 10 years now and I noticed maybe 5 years ago, a mini-murmur of a couple of dozen starlings swooping over the fields after the muck spreader had been. The numbers have slowly increased since then until now and they are really making their presence felt. Still not at the numbers I remember, but a small sign of hope, I think, that something is helping them to thrive again here
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Live watching the starlings ... we get mini-murmurs here when family groups get together and roost in the reedbeds on the marshes over the hill. Lots too on the grazing marshes alongside the road between here and Gt Yarmouth and there are regular murmurations as they flock together to roost on and under the Wellington pier.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'm so glad @Pat E to hear you've got rain at last. We have as well this morning and it is very blustery but no damage yet as far as I can tell - one of the cast iron chairs on the terrace has blown over, despite me wedging it under the table foot - obviously not securely enough! Pots all seem to be okay.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border