Swift half news - 13th June 2010

• The honeysuckle at Swift Half is in full bloom - and the big bumblebees and moths are loving it.
• Talking of flowers - the elderflower is still going strong (the bottled champagne is taking on its fizz and losing some of its cocktail sweetness), the rear (rear) garden has been carpeted with "scarlet pimpernel" in the recent dry spell -and the twenty-one potato plants have flowered nicely.
• The sunflower has avoided being nibbled by our hens, and is now about 20cm tall.
• The swift chicks are growing well - they look pretty prehistoric still (at 7 days old) and their eyes are still closed.
• Talking of swifts - a hobby raced through the garden pretty low today - chasing swifts and dragonflies I expect - not good.
• I think we have another woodpecker nest on the go to the west of the house - the woodpecker attractor is still being visited not only by adult birds and fledglings, but also adult birds carrying food somewhere other than the nest which produced the first set of fledglings. I'll keep my eye on that lot...
• Bit of rain tonight and tomorrow and then a nice, sunny, warm settled period (again) to come this week.
• Anna and I ate our first two home-grown strawberries this year.

Swift half news - 1st June 2010

• A dank, grey, drizzly, cool start to June - but the promise of very nice weather by thursday this week and well into the weekend - so the first honeysuckle flowers out in the garden have timed things very well!
• Loads of elderflowers too now - so Anna and I will be making bottles of champagne and cordial if sometime this week.
• A very good night for moths last night (despite running the gauntlet of two cats sitting by the trap, eating the odd moth that flew by) with three "Silver Y" moths and a number of Heart and Darts (plus a few Willow Beauties).