Posted in Birds, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Nature, starlings on May 27, 2012| 11 Comments »
A baby starling (Sturnus vulgaris) on the bird table in May 2012…
Over the last few years, since I have been feeding the garden birds in summer as well as winter, we have had a bunch of starlings visiting, just for a month or two.
This year the first one arrived on April 27 and soon there were about seven of them. I know (more…)
Posted in Gardening, House plants, Uncategorized, tagged Gardening, indoor plants on May 21, 2012| 7 Comments »
My new white Easter cactus or Hatiora gaertneri
It’s a couple of weeks now since the Cardiff Horticultural Show, but I thought I would share one of my purchases with you.
It’s a (more…)
Posted in Nature, tagged foxes, magpies, Nature, photography on May 18, 2012| 17 Comments »
Romance – or at least interest – between a fox and magpie…
I was pleased with this capture of a garden fox (almost) kissing a magpie, so thought I would post it here.
I took the photo in the early morning sun the other day and I had to lean sideways at full stretch, pointing my camera through a small landing window to get the shot, which shows the fox in a neighbour’s garden.
Another shot of the magpie sneaking up on the fox from behind, taken before the other picture…
The magpie was running around the fox, almost taunting it.
Here are my other fox blog posts:
Living with urban foxes
Foxy shows his (her) face again…
Foxy would a-wooing go…
Fowl play? Call in the feather forensics team…
And here’s a recent one about magpies:
Egging on the magpies…
Posted in Birds, Gardening, My garden, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged birds, Gardening, Nature on May 11, 2012| 16 Comments »
A dandelion clock in my garden…
The other evening, around 6.30, I looked out of my window towards my neighbour’s garden and was surprised by a small spot of red. You know how it is, you notice the smallest thing if it is brightly coloured – and especially if it is moving.
My heart beat faster – wow, it was a goldfinch! That’s Carduelis carduelis in Latin. I never see those in our garden, next to a wooded park. I have only ever seen them in open, rough countryside, usually where there are thistles and teasels, as they love the seeds.
We often have chaffinches. Then we have greenfinches when there are tiny seeds on the Cotinus and once a year we see a bullfinch. But not a goldfinch, despite my once putting out nyjer seeds, which were ignored.
I hastily reached for my camera…
The goldfinch on my neighbour’s decking…
I took quite a (more…)
Posted in Art & Design, History, Uncategorized, tagged Cardiff, History on May 7, 2012| 7 Comments »
The Olympic rings being raised on Sunday, April 22, 2012…
On the way back from Cardiff’s RHS Garden Show in the rain on April 22, I was surprised to see the Olympic rings being raised in front of City Hall. I guess it’s because Cardiff is the venue for some of the London 2012 football events.
As I had my camera with me, I snapped the rings, along with some general views of a few of the wonderful Edwardian buildings of Cathays Park.
Corinthian capitals…
And with the Olympics in mind, I got to thinking how Greek, how (more…)
The Squirrelbasket 