In praise of mess!

Happy Mother's Day.

Cold today.  But quite productive nonetheless.  We had a trip to Milletts Farm yesterday.  They'd cleverly (cynically?) posted their magazine through our door one day last week, and, as usual, the middle pages were filled with vouchers offering half-price this, BOGOFs and all manner of inventive offers designed to entice us through their doors to spend our hard-earned cash.  Which is what I happily did....

• 3 bags of 60ltr John Innes Multi-Purpose compost
• 2 x 30ltr size planters (square/cuboid plastic, imitation lead looking)
• 2 lavender plants
• 4 trays of pansies
• 1 x rose
• 1 bird box

So this morning, after I'd hung washing out, I hung the bird box in the beech tree in the left hand border at the back of the house.  It's visible from both kitchen and dining room windows, so hopefully there will be some activity to observe.

Next, I re-positioned the old planters from the front door.  The shiny red paint has been flaking away for some time now, so a change was long overdue.

Drilled drainage holes, crocks in and filled the two new planters with one bag of the new compost...  Planted with lavender and 4 pansies in each.  Emptied old pots assorted sizes, and refreshed with new compost, and planted with remaining pansies.  Planted rose in a good spot in the back garden.  Should have taken photo of the planters, but light not good, will do so when sun is out next, and let you see it.  I'm quite pleased all the same.

In the midst of this 'play-gardening' (I'm equally happy to get stuck in and dig out old tree roots) I had to go round the side of the house, through our 'back passage' which is a dreadful storage area (dumping ground) in need of a good tidy!  As I reached amongst the wobbly pile of flowerpots on the     wooden shelves by the back door for the hand-fork, I was angrily buzzed by a bird.  It quite startled me, and I stood back and observed where it had come from.

On the top shelf I'd saved 3 boxes which had had an eryngium, a lupin and something else in, all planted out last year, but I'd kept the boxes for the instructions, in case...  In case I left them there overwinter - in which case they'd make a good nesting box (!) for a bird...  

Several circumspect observations later and a couple of buzz-pasts by the parent bird, and I quickly observed 5 small creamy coloured eggs....  I didn't hang around, I got out of the way and worried whether they'd been left too long by the parent.  The temperature has definitely dropped today, and it's too cold for incubating eggs not to be sat on.

We left the house at 3pm for a late lunch for mother's day (very nice, thanks), and the nest was empty of bird then.  However, when we returned at 5.30pm, I opened the back door, took 3 steps away from the shelves to position myself carefully to view ....  bright beedy eyes staring out at me and whoosh!  Phoebe said 'It's a robin!'.  We beat retreat tout-suite! and now have fingers crossed that they stay put.

Tom wondered whether they'd like to move into the nest box I'd erected earlier in the day.  Difficult to explain the intricacies to a 6 yr old.  But aren't we lucky?

On the small rodent front, Roly caught a mouse again today (he'd had one yesterday as well).  I was carrying the washing out, and didn't see where it came from, but two in two days makes me wonder if there's a nest of them hereabouts... Don't know what I'd do if I found it.  Do mice eat bird eggs?  I'm fairly sure a rat would, but a mouse?  I don't know.  

On the big bird front.  I'm looking into getting a new hen house.  The one I have was a house-warming present from my Dad 5 yrs ago and is too big.  It's a sturdy wooden arc, and has a couple of leaks, which I've had covered over this winter with a tarp.  There's a place up in the Solway Firth that does recycled farm plastics, and has a range of hen houses for reasonable money, so we'll see.  That's the beauty of online shopping.  The fact that this place ticks my boxes for ethics (farming, recycling) and the practicality of a plastic house - easy cleaning, few(er) crevices for mites, is drawing me to them.

Confession.  There's a few more books arrived on my pile of books by my bedside.  I'm still reading Alexander McCall Smith (The Double Comfort Safari Club - turns out The Saturday Big Tent Wedding Party had a plotline I'd missed, and I realised I'd jumped a book on, so I swopped them at the library to be correct chronologically).  Recent charity shop purchases:

• Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel.  I've seen this at the library, it's a huge book, 651 pages in paperback, and prizewinner about Thomas Cromwell in the bloody brutal world of the Tudors and politics of Henry VIII.  I'm becoming more interested in historical fiction, I think because I wasn't very good at history at school and regret it now.
• The Story of My Life by Helen Keller - never read it, feel I should have.
• Living to Tell the Tale - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - part auto-biography/part biography.  Looking forward to it already, but where to put it in the pile???

Although I love books (and reading!), I absolutely couldn't join a book club.  I can't read to order, and  if I had to cover that many pages by next month I'd not be able to.   So they just pile up by my bedside, and I enjoy the anticipation almost as much as the actual reading....

Looking towards Wantage over Lockinge from the Ridgeway

That's it for now.  I'm working extra hours at the library this week, looking forward to it, so will stop here and get an early night.  I've WI work waiting for me as well, but I'll tackle that tomorrow.

Thanks for reading,  keep it sweet.  Kat