Thursday 7th October 2021, 5.30pm (day 3,696)
The last of the plums have finally been harvested off the tree. I’m leaving the rest for the wasps: this one’s already made a start on the bounty, as you can see.
The wasp in the plum
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: garden
Moth, the sequel (with plums)
Monday 6th September 2021, 5.05pm (day 3,665)
Emboldened by the appearance of its fellow moth five weeks ago, this one flew over and demanded I did its close-ups. The plums in the background prove that the tree has eventually borne fruit, despite half of it giving up the ghost.
Unless I’ve miscounted — but you can’t prove this, so might as well take my word for it — this is the 1,499th picture on this blog to be taken in Hebden Bridge. Number 1,500 will be along before the week is out.
Moth
Sunday 1st August 2021, 12.35pm (day 3,629)
This moth was tiny, barely the size of my thumbnail. Do you know the basic difference between butterflies and moths? I didn’t, until looking it up today — but apparently, all butterflies have little balls at the end of their antennae. As this creature doesn’t have those, it’s a moth. Now you know.
Propped plums
Monday 5th July 2021, 9.35am (day 3,602)
The plum tree is bearing a heavy load this year, and needed help. Banyan trees have worked out how to do this kind of thing for themselves, but not yet this species. The working week started with a trip to the builders’ merchants in order to acquire some long, stout bits of wood to prop up the most creaking branches.
Wild strawberry
Wednesday 23rd June 2021, 3.15pm (day 3,590)
This is not an eventful period of my life. This is nothing to do with the Great Fear, it’s just how the wheel is turning at the moment. But at least the wild strawberries are out, and waiting to be found.
A dash of colour
Sunday 13th June 2021, 1.20pm (day 3,580)
Everything’s growing fast. Do the weeding in the garden and three days later it all comes back, it seems. These plants — I am not botanist enough to identify them — offered a splash of colour to the mostly green landscape but it was only temporary; they are weeds, they had to go. But like everything else, they will no doubt return.
Water butt ecosystem
Sunday 30th May 2021, 3.55pm (day 3,566)
If you can’t see why it’s a good idea to put a plank of wood like this in one’s garden water butt, you’ve clearly never had to get the drowned corpse of an indeterminate creature out of one, as we once did. Anyway, over the last few months, it has been colonised. The slime came first — now, this rather more photogenic red fungus, or that is what I assume it is. Who knows, give it a couple of thousand years and we might have entire civilisations existing in this water butt universe.
The latest robin
Saturday 24th April 2021, 2.10pm (day 3,530)
Three minutes after I had dug over the garden a little and this robin perches not six feet from me and virtually demands that I capture its close-ups. Seeing as this is taken in pretty much the same spot as the picture of the last robin to grace this blog, only 22 days ago, it might be the same one — either way, it is the latest example of how this particular species really has learned to not be in the least bit bothered about us humans. Perhaps it, too, is slightly annoyed by the presence of the white plastic tie, but what the hell.
Eager robin
Friday 2nd April 2021, 3.05pm (day 3,508)
Robins succeed because they’ve commandeered the ecological niche entitled ‘we really don’t give a shit about those human creatures’. We turned over a pile of compost on the allotment and this fearless chap was picking it over before we’d moved five feet back. He got the best pickings — woodlice, centipedes, worms — everything else was just in his wake. Birds! Ignore the humans! Be the robin! You’ll not regret it.
Being 42 