While I was in Mississippi, we were passing Suzie Cranston’s house when a ball of energy with a beaming smile bounced out of the driveway, exclaiming “I’m painting them! You must look! And I’m really enjoying it!”
She’s the lady, some of you may recall, with perhaps a hundred birdhouses in her garden.
Waving us down the path to her workshop, she pointed out the detailing of the ones she was working on. Any bare wood had been painted over with cheerful colours. Continue reading
If the idea of gardening merely prompts memories of garden chores such as leaf-blowing, mowing, edging, dead-heading, thank your lucky stars you don’t have to engage in large scale owl-shifting.
Hearing Sherra Owen (whose garden these owls inhabit) on MPB radio reminded me that I had not yet shared my picture of her stone owl log. It is unfair of me not to say once again what a wonderful woodland garden she has, but she’s such a lovely person, I feel sure she won’t mind. Even her wooden fence thrills me, to say nothing of her trilliums, hellebores and other woodland ephemerals.
Apparently one of the things about encouraging owls to roost on fallen timber is that the wood decays and the owls fall… or rather they would, if the lady in question did not move them to a freshly fallen log. Continue reading
These colourful birdhouses from the RHS Hampton Court Flower Show made me think of beach huts, each painted slightly differently to their neighbours, but all in keeping with the spirit of the place. I need to rein in my imagination at this point before I start twittering about birds emerging from their huts in swimming costumes, clutching beach towels, ready for a few hours in the sun… followed by a refreshing sand bath… see what I mean? Continue reading
These baby chickadees are off to a great start in life. They’ll be flying away soon and I can’t imagine what their future holds. Five tiny nestlings, five different futures.
They’ve had the very good fortune to have hatched inside a nest box provided by our dear friend, nature lover Greg Grant. Outside a beautiful, wild landscape is waiting for them that seems lifted out of a storybook. Continue reading
Can you make out the tiny people on the rocky outcrop in the foreground? It must be an amazing feeling to be standing there, assuming you’ve got a head for heights.
I saw these two friends in a garden in New Orleans. They look like they’ve been sitting side by side at ease (or on guard) in a shady, green corner for quite some time. Continue reading
The post inspired by this week’s photo challenge (circle) has been hatching for some time – since July’s RHS Hampton Court Flower Show to be precise!
When I first saw the garden, the snug dimensions of the globe wicker structure puzzled me until I realised it was a bird hide, woven by willow sculptor Carole Beavis. I must have been experiencing sensory overload at the time (Hampton Court can be like that) or you would have thought the bird houses on the walls, the log pile to attract insects and the wildlife-friendly flowers might have been a clue that this is an urban bird watchers’ garden. Even the cushion covers inside the hide have birds on them! Continue reading
The best thing for me about the weekly photo challenge is that it encourages me to share pictures that would otherwise never see the light of day. Continue reading
A blue bird sits on an old contorted branch at the top of a dying tree and looks out over the edge of the Grand Canyon. How wonderful it must be to be a bird there! Continue reading
