nature notes

Love wild flower meadows but they’re getting increasingly rare. Even here they’re thin on the ground. Fertiliser, silage cutting and intensive grazing have destroyed most of them.
I understand that the island of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides has meadows like nowhere else. Also upper Teasdale and upper Swaledale. Certainly if I had that recent lottery win of £184,000,000 then it would not be a fancy house or flash car. It would be the biggest rewilding project ever seen in Britain. ???
 
Hen-Gen said:
dianefairhall said:
Hen-Gen said:
Well Dianne, I could say a lot about that but you never know who’s reading.
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:shock: :shock:

I can't believe anyone on here would be offended, Hen-Gen!
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It’s one of those unspoken rules in these parts that we can whinge and complain to our neighbours but that you should never criticise your island to off-islanders.
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Sorry! Didn't realise that's what you meant. Wouldn't expect you to do that.
 
bigyetiman said:
Margaid, that reminded me of coconut matting at school, prickly and nasty.

Someone locally converted a barn, then complained bitterly about the neighbouring farmer, combining etc out of hours, went to court and farmer was told to do farm work in "office hours and not weekends also.
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I hope the court judge was told that in that case, he would only be allowed to eat between 9am & 5pm Monday to Friday, not out of hours or at weekends at all? :-)07
 
You just know it was some city judge, probably never seen a combine or field of wheat.
 
It’s an eco system found on the western fringes of the Outer Hebrides and one or two inner islands like Tiree. It’s predominant feature is that it is regularly subject to wind blown sand which contains a lot of pulverised sea shells and is therefore alkaline in nature. It is however low in nutrient status. This means that the growth of grasses is curtailed which allows a whole raft of wild flowers to flourish. In season it is a beautiful sight and supports a rich diversity of insects. It also provides a suitable habitat for rare birds like the corncrake.
 
Our nesting Kingfishers fledged three young yesterday, as did the Great spotted Woodpeckers, and for the first time we have a pair of Grey Wagtail, nesting along the brook, they are busy collecting insects around the lake
 
Gosh Marigold, you have a lovely garden. I love the maturity and the naturalness, and the juxtapositions! Is that a sculpture under the willow?
 
MrsBiscuit said:
Gosh Marigold, you have a lovely garden. I love the maturity and the naturalness, and the juxtapositions! Is that a sculpture under the willow?
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Thank you. It’s a wind sculpture, goes round in the breeze. The other day I saw a rat sitting on the top piece, going round and round and wondering where the food had got to!
The three birch trees came home on the roof rack of our Mini, 50 years ago when we first moved here.
 
Ah, so they are birches, not willow? Where we used to live birches were planted in a copse about 1/4 mile away, consequently most of us had birches in the garden!
 
Yes - back in 1971 we planted them in the middle of what was then a bare plot, and waited to dig the pond until our youngest was old enough not to drown in it, with luck. Consequently, it would have been good to have planted them further back, as a lot of the leaves finish up in the pond in autumn. But they do provide good shade for the chicken run, and being the highest trees at the top of a hill they are a magnet for flocks of perching birds scanning the fields around for food.
 
Marigold said:
5B9E7048-619E-4464-879C-AB8D8139C25A.jpeg

Flower meadow now in its third year, where we used to have boring grass.

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That looks absolutely lovely Marigold. Such a lot of work.
 
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