Everywhere

The garden is full of wildlife at the moment. This morning there must be at least half a dozen female blackbirds & the odd male. Some look like they’re juveniles but nonetheless I don’t think I’ve seen so many scurrying across the lawns at one time. They stop from time to dig out the odd worm or other insect. Occasionally they’ve flown over to the bird feeder to get a bit of pork fat I’ve cut off today’s joint.

Yesterday I was talking to our gardener’s husband – he’d come to collect her & take her home. He loves wildlife so I was telling him about the frogs. I pointed at the thyme & out popped a frog, straight off to the phlox. Carol, our gardener, commented she had been startled further up the garden when a frog had jumped out of the hostas onto her.

In the evening, after the Fox had mowed the lawns & before dinner, the Fox & I had a bit of a stroll in the garden. We were bombarded by butterflies. They seemed to be everywhere. All sorts – some large, like the whites, some small like brown heaths. The lavender was abuzz with the white hairy bottoms of bumble bees sticking out.

As for Thursday, when I returned to the house having taken out the peelings to the compost heap, I almost walked into the most beautiful peacock butterfly with its enormous white circled blue eyes. Unmistakeable. Magnificent.