September 2013

30 September 2013

September sky

September was a little warmer and dryer than average. However the misty cloudy week at the end of the month brought sunshine hours to below average. Weathers Stats

View August sky 2013

29 September 2013

Sunny morning cobwebs!

Yesterday....

Looking across the meadow in the morning.

These photos are snapped with Alfie on one hip and the camera in the other free hand (as are many photos!)

Blueberry bush, lovely berries, lovely autumn colour and I guess the spider who built this web likes it too.

For me there is something magically perfect about a wild garden and it's simple offerings.

28 September 2013

September garden.

Looking down on the veg. patch. Autumn is in the air.

Leeks.

Buckwheat on the left and purple sprouting broccoli on the right.

Potatoes, Kale and Sweetcorn.

In the small tunnel.

Grapes in the small tunnel jungle.

Grapes just ripe now.

Kales

Apples.

View August garden 2013

View October garden 2013

27 September 2013

Garden Harvest

A few times this September I have grabbed the camera for the moments between the garden and the pot.

I picked Hazelnuts, then Angus picked Hazelnuts, then Zoe went out to see what we missed and this is her cache! Here Filberts and Cobnuts are mixed with native hazelnuts.

Brandywines and Fat Toms.

Tomatoes, aubergine, peppers and basil.

Zoe picked this twin sweetcorn. She said it was the best sweetcorn she had ever tasted! Now how do I grow more twins next year?

We have been having lots of sweetcorn meals and every time I put a few in the freezer too.

Tivon Loves sweetcorn and he has helped me to plant it for the last number of years.

However he now has competition from Alfie as No 1 sweetcorn lover!

Elderberries for Elderberry syrup. If we waited for all the elderberries on each stalk to be ripe the birds would have them first. As so many grow out of reach their are plenty left for the birds.

26 September 2013

Zoe's photos.

Another wet and misty morning here, Zoe (11 yrs) took the camera out to the garden.....

Water droplets caught in a web beside a post that has an upside down flower pot on top of it.

Eggs in a nest made in the straw.

This years Chick.

25 September 2013

Misty garden Cobwebs.

There is a heavy mist here today and this mornings cobwebs were spectacular........

The Bay tree.

Weigela.

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These last 2 photos were taken this morning too.

Medlar.

Californian poppy, still flowering exuberantly, undaunted by damp Irish Autumn weather.

On September 20th Angus found this Moth at his trap. It is a rare migrant with about 12 previous Irish records. He was intending to get a better photo but the day was so warm (24C) it wanted to fly, so he let it go. Migrant species can travel thousands of miles helped by warm air flows from the South.

Bedstraw Hawk-moth

24 September 2013

Insect life.

Here are a few more photos from this summer of just some of the creatures that love our garden as much as I do.

Zoe's photo of a pair of 22 Spot Ladybirds.

Hoverfly.

Cockchafer ( May bug). Lots of these are attracted to the light of Angus's moth trap every year in early summer.

Small Tortoiseshell on Marjoram.

Peacock butterfly on Buddleia.

Bombus Hortorum on Teasel.

Bombus Lapidarius on ‎ Borage.
I like this photo on full screen, The hairs of the Bee and the hairs of the Borage have caught the light and give a sense of merging and similarity.

Nasturtium, another abundant self seeder and good all rounder, being visited by Bombus hortorum.

This climbing rose flowers abundantly in the vegetable garden every June. The spider is Misumema Vatia, a species of crab spider and known as the flower spider.