GARDENER'S WORD

We're having more rain, and snow is forecast.  While many areas further north, particularly in Cumbria, flood with too much rain saturating the land, here, high on the West Yorkshire Pennines, the rain runs down the valley to join the river Calder and my garden is left just a sodden restaurant for birds.  For it to flood where I live, there would have to be enough rain to worry Noah.  It's the wind that gets worrying here and when the snow comes it can last for weeks.  I hate that.  Meanwhile, before the snow arrives, IF it arrives, thrushes are attacking the fat balls which I hung out two days ago, and Gold Finches are extracting husked sunflower seeds from the bird feeders.  On the ground a Woodpigeon and a Blackbird are tidying up the garden by picking up fallen sunflower seeds and bits of fat that the Thrushes and Finches have dropped—thanks for that.  It might be a bit expensive feeding wild birds all year round but on days like this, wh...

Winter's coming.  It's arriving slowly here on the Pennine Mountains of West Yorkshire with temperatures sometimes in the teens but with lashings of rain and wind howling like a banshee much of the time.  I've seen long term weather forecasts of a dreadful winter ahead with lots of snow; months of it, the worst since 1966/67.  Oh, great!  Not.  For a change I'm hoping they get the forecast wrong.  My first thoughts, apart from stocking my cupboards full of food and what-not, and getting all the cat litter and cat food in for Alfie, the resident Ragdoll cat, that we might need in a siege of snow is to turn my thoughts to the wild birds.  Today I've made fat balls, the way I do every winter.  They cost peanuts compared to some of the ones I see in the shops. Home made fat and seed balls - 2013 This year I made eight fat-balls with 250g of melted beef lard.  I poured in enough mixed table seed and cheap raisins ...

It's a few weeks since I last posted on this gardening blog.  It seems to have done little else for days on end but either rain, blow a gale, or blow a gale and rain.  We even had snow the other day but it lasted a brief time, thankfully.  The temperature, considering we are now into the last month of 2015, is relatively mild which is no doubt the reason why my clematis, Dr Ruppel, is still in full flower in December .  December!  I kid you not! There are still raspberries on the Polka raspberry canes but I am leaving them for the birds and squirrels .  The birds give me so much joy and very shortly I will be making my annual Christmas fat-cakes for them.  I've never seen so many goldfinches at one time gathering around the seed-feeder.  I do wish I could get better photographs to show you but I have to take them through glass from indoors and it's not the ideal situation even for my camera, which is a far better camera than I am a phot...