28 February 2021 in the garden

Holey crocus

Lichen on a rotting spruce stump

Forgsoawn at last!

Hazel catkins

Toad thinks the nibblers might be beetles

Polytrichum/Haircap moss sp on rotting spruce

 

Digging out docks

That's dock plants, Rumex obtusifolius, not docks for boats. It was a mild day so my 'gansey' was soon not required.

Gate hanger.                                                             Gansey hanger

The "pond primula" is flowering. It seemed to carry on flowering for months last year.

Although Lesser Celandines have been flowering down by the loch for almost three weeks now, today was the first time they have made a proper showing in the garden.

Field Woodrush also:

The bright green blades are of grass; you might be able to make out the knob at the point of the murkier green leaf of the woodrush.

Primrose, daisy, azalea

This photo was taken looking down squintwards on the primrose bank from beside the drystone wall above it. Some of the seeds from these plants have made their way over the wall and onto the terrace at the front of the house. Initially there was just one clump in the corner (not shown) but now there are these three new ones as well.

over the wall primroses

Also at the base of this wall there are numerous entrances of bank voles. It seems they sometimes nibble the daisies. Something does anyway.

half-nibbled

If you sit on the doorstep and look straight ahead, the flowers of the yellow azaleas,

which also grow on the front bank are now visible.

Pics of early spring on the Boggy Brae

honeysuckle stem growth

Springy Turf-moss (Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus)

Pignut leaves with the springy turf-moss

Fire hydrant in the lane

Lesser Celandine beginning to flower

Opposite-leaved Golden Saxifrage

Insects on the pond

A tiny rose

Irrepressible Rose has produced a tiny flower despite the best efforts of roe deer to prevent it from doing so by eating its young shoots. I'm guiding the shoots, as they get long enough, behind the trellis to afford the plant more protection...

...because they are still eating new leaves.

We have had a lot of heavy rain so the colchicum is looking somewhat rain battered. 

As autumn progresses, the late afternoon and evening light on the hillside across the loch is sometimes lovely, like last night when it coppered the bracken in a warm glow.

Gall midges, flowers and leaves

In a break between rain pourings yesterday I went out to look at leaves, aka greenness. The lobelia and the yellow loosestrife caught my eye. Flowers do that :)

But the greens did too, especially of this fern with leaves at various stages, the basal rosette of a Cat's-ear growing in a boggy bit, and some aquilegia.

And then I spotted something new which turned out to be midge galls of the Gall Midge (Dasineura ulmaria) on meadowsweet leaves. Apparently they turn red as they progress.

An old shed door that the tide brought

Some years ago I 'beachcombed' a good deal of an old shed that had drifted in on the sea loch tide, including this shed door that is about to be used as a lawnmower ramp for our serviced and repaired machine. It's the one Toad uses. I use it occasionally but it's really too heavy for me on our never horizontal, bumpy lawns. Watching Toad push it, unpowered by its engine, up to the shed through lush wet grass that hasn't been mowed for at least six weeks, confirmed its heaviness–he was finding it tough going.

The other main use of the shed door has been to shelter the lower part of the wood pile from rain, at which job it has been very effective. Much of the rest of the shed has helped a few garden bonfires along.

Once the mower was put away (no mowing today), Toad buzzed off to his Saturday drawing group.

We had the mower serviced at Fraser C Robb, by Drymen. This is currently my favourite shop. It's an Aladdin's cave of Useful Stuff. I came away with a new scythe sharpening stone and WOLF-Garten window washer and squeegee. The shop is going to post me an extendable long handle next week. Up till now I've used a ladder to get at our downstairs outside windows whose sills are at my eye-level. I fell off the ladder last time. Apart from a few bruises, only my dignity was injured but future outdoor window cleanings will be sans ladder. Our upstairs windows open inwards to improve their get-at-ability; the downstairs ones don't.

I dead-headed the woodshed rose and what I call the truck buddleia and then had a wee welly damp shoe wander to see how the two new heathers and last year's tall lobelia were doing. The lobelia has had to be protected from deer munching if it was to flower at all.

Erica x darleyensis 'Ghost Hills'

Calluna vulgaris 'Hammondii Aureifolia'

I was pleased to see that the yellow loosestrife is finally looking less anaemic, and I really like the dying heads of the marguerites that a friend gave me.