Going Through The Motions

We feed everything that wanders through our yard/garden, practically.  Here in England, we have grey squirrels, foxes, badgers, jays, starlings, woodpeckers, magpies, crows, tits, wrens, robins, pigeons, and other small birds, and feral cats and neighborhood cats.  I don't feed the deer but only because I have experience with them becoming a nightmare in the garden with little blessings of deer poop everywhere that never goes away or gets cleaned up.   Unfortunately, the larger birds have pretty much chased away the smaller birds but I have heard that there are fewer tits and robins and wrens around the last couple of years anyway.  I believe that is so because the first two years here, we had plenty of all kinds of sizes of birds.  Now we are low on all bird life!  And to my everlasting sorrow, no hedgehogs.

The cats that wander through have varied over the years.  At one time, we had as many as 6 coming and going during the day.  Now we are down to just two, one tabby and one long haired golden colored kitty.  The tabby will come up to be petted if I stand in one place long enough.  The golden cat is too skittish and never comes near me.

The squirrels are up and down the feeder and adjacent trees and around the yard all day long.  They race along the fence railing, jumping over the posts and fight each other for supremacy in the feeder.  When one of the cats comes into the yard, the squirrels scatter, run up into the trees and curse and curse and curse until the cat leaves.  I can always tell when a cat is in the garden because of the noise the squirrels make.

The golden cat has decided that a very good place to sit is almost directly under the feeder.  The squirrels have decided that if they want the peanuts, they are just going to have to race a bit faster to nab one and race away from the sitting cat.   For awhile, I don't think the golden cat was feeling well because she (no idea if male or female but she looks too cute and sweet to be a male) would just sit and watch the squirrels and never budge.  Or was she just luring them in for later???

Standing in the house one day, squirrels in the feeder and on the railing and suddenly a streak of gold as the cat races from the side of the house and up the feeder pole to land on the railing herself and swipe a paw at a squirrel.  Wowzer.  She had never done that before.  Since that day, I have seen her several times make a run at the squirrels, never quite catching them but almost giving them a swipe.  She then settles into her spot and the squirrels come and go again to the feeder with her just watching them.

I think it's all for show!  Nobody is hungry since there is food out for them to eat.  Today, the golden cat came running into the back garden and ran at a squirrel who jumped up to the railing and sat there scolding her.  Another squirrel was sitting on the ground just about 4' away from her.  She turned around and saw it and made a half-hearted run at it and I swear she could have caught it before the squirrel decided to leave.  It's almost as if they are playing tag!  Tag, you're it now you run away because I really don't want to have to go to the trouble of killing you and eating you. Yes, we are ancient enemies.  I am the hunter, you are the prey, but let's just go through the motions and be done with it. 

Many, Many Tits

Stop right there and discontinue reading if your mind is in the gutter and thinking - WOW - she's going to write about female anatomy 'cuz it ain't gonna happen!  I'm talking about the lovely little English birds - tits - Greater Tits, Blue Tits, Coal Tits, Lesser Tits (not sure they have these but there must be lesser if there are greater) and Crested Tits.    So there.


They are delightful little birds and quite colorful mostly, except for the Coal Tits which are pretty much black and white but still delightful.  We have many in our garden and they come to the bird feeders frequently.  We have them all except the Crested Tits and I haven't even seen one of those but did see in a book that they exist.  The tits are our most frequent visitors although we have a large contingent of Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, Wood Pigeons, Robins, Starlings, some Wrens,and Magpies that show up regularly and maybe a few others that are not quite so frequent.  But I think I like the tits the best.  


I have to admit that both my husband and I dissolve into laughter any time either of us go "Hey, there's a couple of TITS in the garden!"  We go all Bevis and Butthead at that saying and then we look to see what kind they are and enjoy the heck out of watching them.  Everybody can enjoy a little sophomoric and idiotic fun.


  Think I read somewhere that the English Starling and even the Wood Pigeon might be in danger but I think if that's the case, the bird society could come to our garden and I'd happily let them have a bunch of mine to take elsewhere and repopulate.


Last year, my gardener told me I shouldn't feed the birds so much when there were babies in nests as they needed to learn to hunt and catch the bugs and worms and slugs and such.  Good advice and it makes sense but my Tits and other small birds just went elsewhere and I didn't have a whole lot of birds around or any birdsong during that period when I wasn't feeding them so this year I expect I'll just keep feeding them except on the days when my gardener comes.  Is that bad?  probably.  Because who knows if the next person to rent/own this house will be as happy taking care of the wild and feral creatures that meander through here.


Last year I put out a bunch of houses in the hopes that I'd get something to nest in them.  Didn't happen but the houses are still out there and maybe some little new mom and dad bird will need a new house and find one.  Also put out a bunch of hangers that have wool and stuff in them that supposedly the birds will take to make their nests.  Can't do much else unless I go build the nest for them and stuff them inside. 


As I've stated before, the birdsong starts around 6 and is quite lovely.  Don't know who sings what as usually I can't see which bird has its mouth open when I can hear songs.  It won't be quite so lovely come June when the birds start singing around 4:30 but right now I enjoy it.  Anyway, having Tits in the garden is great (Ha ha, ha ha) Love it  and those cute little birds. 

Mushy Garden

We have been quite fortunate this winter not to be in one of the flooded areas in the south of England.  We almost were as we had looked at several properties in areas that have had problems with flooding but - knock on wood - so far, our rental house has been fine through all the rain.  Not that we haven't had some problems as the conservatory has been pumped up as it was breaking away from the house.  But so far, we're good.  No flooding. 


That said, our back garden is mush.  Walking across it yesterday to retrieve some of the fallen branches and debris from the wind, it was like walking through a plate of mushy peas - I imagine.  Squish, squash, mush, splat, splash.  Our back garden has always been a lot more moss than grass but it is green so who really cares.  But now, it is pretty much turned into a swamp.  If the weather were warmer, I'd be looking for mangrove stumps or cypress knees or lotus blossoms in the middle of the yard.  I am still feeding the birds and squirrels and neighborhood feral cats and foxes and badgers so do need to squish across the garden periodically to fill the freeloaders bowls.  The mush pulls at my shoes and spits water up at me as I gingerly traipse to the feeders.  Rather unique feeling.


 We have a lovely back garden that overlooks the golf course where we can see that the sand traps have turned into small lakes.  Yet still the golfers come almost every day.   And our garden was built up to equal the level of the house and to hold a deck rather than slope down to the golf course.  Underneath the deck, we can see the whole garden buildup straining against the brick wall that has already been braced against the pressure.  My hubby thinks that the broken gap between the dirt and the bricks has grown and the pressure has increased.  We are rather intimidated by it and a bit afraid to measure the gap in case we are right and it is increasing.  While I think we are OK and won't flood, I think it is now a race.  We need enough dry days for the garden to dry and quit being mush.   If that doesn't happen and we get more rain, I fear the brick wall might finally succumb to the pressure and the whole garden might slide down the slope to the golf course.  Gone will be the deck, gone will be my workshop under the deck.   Mush, mush, mush.  Still, not as bad as the Somerset Levels (had to ask my gardener what they were) but never had such a mushy yard.   

The Empty Golf Course

We are lucky enough to have a lovely rental property that sits behind the first hole of a golf course.  It is quite nice not to have other homes behind us and we have a great view up the fairway for this hole.  The only time it is irritating is some mornings when the groundskeepers come riding down to their shack which is also behind the first hole and they are quite noisy as they get out their machines.   But for the most part it is peaceful and quiet and great.  We see deer cross the fairway sometimes and there's always some magpies and crows flying around down there.

 
Living here we have come to realize what a strange breed is the golfer and especially the British golfer.  It is not a sport that anyone in my family has ever taken up as a hobby or sport or vocation or love.  But the golfers that play the course behind us must be the most avid and determined and also frustrated golfers in the world.  They are out there every single day.  No matter the weather, no matter the date, no matter the time, we see golfers on the course.   The only times we have not seen golfers pursuing their passion have been the three times when the course has been covered in snow.  And quite frankly, we were a bit surprised that there weren't golfers in the snow.  I figured there would be colored golf balls by now so they could be tracked.  But snow means no golfers.


Until this week!  Surrey has taken some heavy rainfall this week and parts of Surrey have gone swimming involuntarily.  Our own garden is a mixture of swamp and muck but at least not underwater like some of my friends.  The first day after the big storm that dumped water on Surrey this week, I was home all day and not once did I see a golfer out on the course.  I didn't think much about it but then we kept having rain and more rain and more rain and now for three days there have been no golfers.  I imagine that it is so wet and muddy that the course has been closed because the golf cleats could probably tear up the grounds pretty badly.  There is a sand trap near our first hole and right now, it is a water feature.  

 So the golf course is empty and I rather miss the golfers.  They come in all sizes and shapes and all manner of odd golf clothes and bring everything from golf carts to remote controlled golf bags that roll across the course by themselves.  And as we have seen golfers in heavy rains and heavy winds, still out there whacking the ball, I believe that the course has been closed by the owners and that there would be golfers there in spite of all the wet and soggy conditions, were they allowed.    Hopefully we'll see some in the next few days.

Disappearing Fish

We have a very nice pond in our back garden.  And we have 6 fish in there and looking very nice as well.  We had learned our first winter here that when it gets cold, the fish tend to sink down to the bottom of the pond and hibernate.  So we don't have to feed them and don't have to worry about them.  Our first year though, I did worry that they might not be getting enough air when the pond froze and I was right.  When spring came and the pond thawed, all of the fish came to the top gasping for air and they all died.  So we replaced them with the 6 we have now and next winter, I made sure to poke holes in the ice with this lovely golf club I had found thrown into the bushes behind our house.

Everyone told me that herons come and eat your fish.  I haven't seen a heron yet anywhere around our  house and garden but people kept telling me I would lose my fish to a heron.   About mid Oct, I finally decided to heed the warnings and put a net over the pond to keep any potential heron from stealing my fish and also to keep the leaves from falling into the water.  I left one end, about a foot wide, of the pond open because the neighborhood cats and foxes and badgers and squirrels all drink out of the pond.  There are water lily pads in the pond so I figured the fish could stay under the water lilies and out of danger or they would deserve to get eaten.  

Wow, talk about locking the barn door or tempting fate!  Our pond developed a leak and we were having to fill it, even after all the rain.  So our landlord came over to replace it and punched a huge hole in the lining to drain it.  I was standing by with two nets to catch my fish.  Pond is getting lower and lower in water level and so far I have only gotten one fish in my net.  Finally, the pond is almost empty and there are no more fish in there at all.  I go downstairs under the deck where the water is draining and there is one fish lying in the puddle there.  that's 2 of 6 and that was all!  someone, some cat, some heron, some fox, some squirrel, or some badger has come and eaten my fish, four of them.  OMG.  my net was too little too late.  

Once we get in the new pond liner and fill up the pond again, I am going to put the net over the pond right away.  I am still going to leave a hole for the wild critters and the neighborhood cats and hopefully these two fish have learned their lessons as to what can happen to their friends when they swim to the end of the pond.  yea, right.  maybe I'll make spring with two fish and maybe not.
 

Crows hate magpies

Crows REALLY don’t like magpies

           

            Sitting in our conservatory yesterday reading and watching all the activity in our garden.  We have a couple of big crows that come in to eat whatever they like apparently and usually they like whatever the magpies are having.  Although when there is food out for the badgers, the crows go for that.  Yesterday I noticed that as soon as a magpie showed up in the yard, the crows would come from wherever and swoop down on the magpies and chase them away.  The chase would go on from tree top to treetop until we could no longer see them flying.  As soon as a magpie came back, the crows would fly in on attack again, dive-bombing the magpies.  The magpies are well aware of the animosity the crows hold for them and take off when they spot a crow.  Luckily for the magpies, the crows don’t hang out very often or the magpies would have to find another place for freeloading.

            The babies are all big enough to be out and about now.  Last week I saw a Greater Tit mom still feeding her baby.  This week the baby had flown to the suet feeder and was helping himself.  The mom flew to the feeder too (could have been the dad).  They were on opposite sides of the feeder and the bigger bird (which is not bigger by much but has the adult plumage) hopped around until it could reach the smaller bird and then pecked its foot until the baby left.  Guess mom wasn’t ready to give up her baby feedings yet or once you start eating on your own, that’s it, you’re out!

            Other babies that are out are the squirrel babies.  Again, not much difference in size now between the babies and the adults.  Yesterday there were 7 squirrels running around the yard after the peanuts.  One squirrel was sitting by the wheelbarrow gnome chomping down on the peanuts when a baby came along timidly.  Baby had good reason to be timid as the bigger and older squirrel immediately chased him away.

            The only parents and babies I have seen cooperating for food have been the two mice.  They will both hop into the wheelbarrow gnome and sit there and eat peanuts together as fast as they can because as soon as a squirrel sees them, ATTACK.  But the mice are quick and agile and when the older squirrel was chasing the younger squirrel away from the peanuts yesterday, the mouse ran out and grabbed some peanuts and was gone before the squirrel knew it.  Gotta be fast to live in my garden!

            There is a black and white cat that has discovered that the garden might be a place for a meal.  So far he hasn’t caught anything except our cat’s eye, who rushes to the door and growls and smacks the door.  Puff is defending the home front.  He usually manages to chase the cat away (although that’s usually at about the same time the cat sees us).  Puff is then so exhausted from his work that he sits and collapses at our feet while we praise him for doing such a good job. 

I love my garden.  I’ve never been a birder but now I get all excited when I see a new bird and try and look up to see what it is.  Some birds don’t come very often.  Today the woodpecker was out there for a while, taking a break from pecking wood it seemed.  It’s always interesting to sit and watch the garden and see the action.

Mean Squirrels

Mean Squirrels

            Everything gets fed in my garden and I mean everything from the squirrels, birds, foxes, deer, crows, cats, dogs, bees, badgers, hedgehogs (hopefully, haven’t seen evidence yet), people, fish, and just about anything else that runs through the garden gets food of some sort.  Sometimes it’s a little tricky spacing out the food bowls and feeders so that unfriendly sorts do not tangle up together.  I think we do a fairly good job of it though and most of the animals are happy and love running around the garden and it’s quite fun to watch them.

            That said, I have some very mean squirrels in the garden.  They are very good at stealing the birdseed and such.  I put out peanuts for them but when the peanuts are gone, they come after the seed and I have had to put out new feeders because they have chewed through all the plastic ones.  They’ll even sit in the bowls and eat the mealworms which did surprise me a bit.  Now they have stooped to a new low in meanness.

            I have gnomes in my garden.  I love my gnomes.  They stand around the fish pond and watch the fish (although the fish are still missing in action, hiding in the muck) and watch the lily pads grow and basically are not bothering anyone.  Four of my gnomes were solar light gnomes.  They have been in the garden for a long time and finally we are getting enough light, some days, for them to glow at night. 

            The squirrels though!  Mean critters.  If I have not gotten out there in the morning with a fresh batch of peanuts, they are going over and kicking the gnomes into the pond!  I have had to pull out gnomes from the pond several afternoons.  Once in the pond, the solar gnomes don’t work so very well anymore.  There is a gnome with a wheelbarrow too and he gets peanuts in his wheelbarrow every day.  By the early afternoon, his wheelbarrow is empty.  By the early evening, the squirrels have kicked him over.  I have had to move all of my gnomes away from the pond because they can’t swim.  The wheelbarrow gnome has to fend for himself.  The squirrels are going to have to learn to play nicely with the gnomes or they are going to find less peanuts out there, not more!

Mucking out the Waterfall

Mucking out the Water Feature

June 10, 2012

            Sunday – we were supposed to have a driving lesson today but our instructor texted in sick – after we were already at our pick up location and ready to go.  OH Well, gave us the Sunday free for other things.  We decided that we needed to practice our barbeque skills on some good British Beef since it isn’t always cut like we know it in the States.  A quick stop at Waitrose to get the main dish and then home for some good hard gardening. 

            We have a gardener.  He comes every other week and does as much as he can in the allotted time but it isn’t always enough.  Imagine our surprise when last week he pulled out a big weed and it appears that there is a water feature in our garden!  Who knew!?  So we decided to clear it out and see if we can use it.  I have always wanted a water feature and sometimes have tried for some piddley little ones that don’t amount to much and aren’t very satisfying but this one looks to be a nice big waterfall. 

            Hubby started shoveling out the muck and wet leaves and such and realized almost immediately that it was going to take mucking out by hand because the bottom pit is covered with a membrane and we have no idea what kind of shape it is in and certainly didn’t want to put a hole in it.  He keeps shoveling out with his hands and shoveling and shoveling until he finally is close to reaching bottom.  The pit is about 2 ½ to 3’ deep.  He did find the pump which was buried in all the dirt and leaves and also a switch on the side of the falls to turn on the pump.

            I went to the top and started working from that end.  He’d already cleared some of the ivy and we knew that the water was supposed to run from cement basins to the bottom pit and then be pumped back up to the top.  I couldn’t find where the plastic hose was coming back into the top at first but after I hacked out some more ivy and then cleaned out the first basin, I found it.  It is full of dirt and we will probably have to pressure hose water into the whole thing from the bottom to blow it out but unfortunately, our hose isn’t long enough and we might be on a hose pipe ban anyway.  Not sure about that.  We’ll figure out some way to do it without messing up any bans.

            We keep hand shoveling and trowel shoveling and got the fish net for some more shoveling until we had everything cleared.  It is a delightful run from the top into 3 basins and then into the bottom pit.  With some of the ivy cleared away, we found some other blooming flowers.  Have no idea what they are either but they are pretty.

            Now for the big moment; my husband went and flipped the switch to give power to the pump, we thought.  Of course nothing happened.  Oh well.  Didn’t really think it would.  But the important part is that we have a water fall!  How exciting it that?  Might take us a few weeks to get it up and running but we are trying.  Hopefully the hose that runs from the bottom to the top is not broken anywhere otherwise it might take a lot longer to fix.  Can’t wait to see it in action.

to Drought or Not to Drought

So much talk this spring about the lack of water and the drought we are going to be having and a hosepipe ban. some of this needs translation for the poor former colonists who don't speak the Queen's English anymore. Hosepipe is what they call a garden hose. simple enough. Spring is apparently the time between March and June when it is lighter and brighter outside but still could freeze or snow or hail, and has several times on us. Not at all like spring in Houston - our last address - where spring meant you saw all your flowers bloom briefly before the heat killed them.

Supposedly, we have heard, you get a mailed notice if you are under a hosepipe ban because of lack of water. Then unless you get an exemption, you can't water your grass, wash your car, fill your birdbath or any such thing with your hose. You can do all of that if you carry the water out of your house in a bucket. Also we have been told that neighbors are particularly good at ratting you out and telling on you if they see you with the hose in your hand. Exceptions are if you have a pond with live fish. Then you are allowed to use the hose to keep it full so your fish don't die. We do have a fish pond and while our fish died over the winter, we have since restocked it. It has still been so cold thought that we haven't seen the fish since we released them into the pond.

Now to the meat of the drought - we're thinking it's not much of one if at all. For the past two weeks, it has rained pretty much every day and almost all day long. We spent several days emptying out a bucket from the overflow of our water butt and also from a drip in our gutter. Then we got smart and went and purchased another water butt. Now this butt is also full. Our garden is so saturated that it is swampy in the low areas. I squish when I walk across the grass/moss. I expect to find ducks out there any day splashing about in the puddles. Also, we visited Ham House which is a historical manor and located on the Thames. The Thames was out of its banks and well across several walkways in the area.

This being our first year in England, not sure how much of this is normal and how much is just luck (good or bad) that it didn't rain much for January and February but started raining in late March and hasn't stopped really. I'm hoping that there isn't a drought and that we will not get an official notice not to use our hosepipe but should that happen, I have my water butts before I start hauling water out of the house. I'm good to go.

My Backyard-Back Garden Polo field

     I know little to nothing about polo other than it's played on a large field, on  large horses, and a small ball or something is hit with a stick.  Not having royals in the U.S. riding about playing polo and being in the news, the best I have is watching "Pretty Woman" where it seems that the break is used to go onto the field and stomp the divots back into the ground.   "Divots" seems to be a polo or a golf term, a piece of dirt and grass dug up by the golfer or the horses hooves.

     My backyard or back garden as is the term to be used in England, has many divots but I've yet to see a golfer in my garden or a horse playing polo.  My divots come from the squirrels.  I have been in the habit for many years of feeding anything that wanders through my garden.  This includes but is not limited to: squirrels, birds, mice, groundhogs, badgers, foxes, deer, cats, dogs, moles, voles, shrews, etc. etc.  In the U.S., it was usually cats and dogs and birds and opossums, skunks and raccoons.  Here in the U.K., so far it has been deer (who ate my tulips so they aren't getting any more), cats, birds, a couple of small mice, squirrels, and I am hoping and hoping to get badgers and foxes and hedgehogs but haven't had any luck with the last three yet.  I've been told that the badgers and foxes will really dig up my garden but couldn't prove it by me yet.  What's causing my garden to look like a polo pitch (field?) are the squirrels.  They are busy burying the peanuts I've put out and then busy wandering around looking for the peanuts they have buried.  I don't think they have much luck because every morning, I find a lot of new divots in the garden but no peanuts.  I watch them through the back window and they run from spot to spot and furiously paw in the ground to get a small hole and NOPE, no peanut in there so they run a foot or so and try again.  I know they are looking for the peanuts previously buried because they've eaten all the new ones put out every morning.

     So each morning as I go out to put out new peanuts and meal-worms or whatever I am doling out that day, I am busy stomping divots back into the ground.  I feel very posh doing the divot stamp.  Julia Roberts did it quite earnestly and lovely in "Pretty Woman".  I am wondering though, where is my handsome young polo player to take my shoes and clean the mud off of them??  I'm sure my hubby would do it but he's already gone to work.  Maybe I'm in the wrong neighborhood for polo players.  Maybe I should be looking for the fox and hound riders.  Maybe I should quite feeding peanuts to the squirrels.  nah.  ain't gonna happen.  too much fun watching them scamper and stomping divots.  guess I'll have to clean my own shoes.

Bad Golfer Theory

Living with a golf course out our back garden is lovely.  We have a great view of the first hole.  It's dark at night so no lights shining in our bedroom windows and it's a grand view without houses interrupting it.  The added advantage being there are always some small groups of people moving about and golfing and they are quite interesting to watch.  We don't play golf but we have learned a lot by just watching the golfers.

Throughout the late autumn and winter, there is always someone on the course during the day.  In the rain, in the sleet, in the cold and in the frost, there are golfers.  The only days when the golf course has been empty has been when it was covered by snow and once the snow was off the fairways, the golfers returned.

When we moved into our rental home, we found several golf balls in the garden.  Usually we were finding one golf ball about every 2 weeks.  Once the weather got really cold, we stopped finding golf balls even though we could still see the golfers moving through the course and "aiming" towards the house.  As we are not golfers, as previously stated, we don't understand the passion or desire or interest that drives golfers to go out and walk around on a cold or wet day.  But we have come up with a theory, the Bad Golfers Theory.  This is solely based on the number of golf balls we find in our garden.

The theory goes like this: Only good golfers are willing to spend the time and money in inclement weather therefore bad golfers are more likely to be "fair weather golfers".  Hence, we will only find golf balls in our garden when the bad golfers are on the course.  In other words, only the bad golfers slice, hook, throw, drive, putt, or whatever, badly enough to have a golf ball end up in our garden.  And since we found no golf balls throughout the winter and into the spring, no bad golfers are on the course during that time because they don't like the sport well enough to wander around in the cold and wet.  

This week, as always, there have been plenty of golfers on the course and the days have been fairly nice and lovely.  I found three golf balls this week!