29-03-2012 Cherry Blossom time !

White blossom on blue sky……..

2012-03-14 Tractor

Stephane and Tractor ! (Dave is behind in the 4X4)

2012-03-01 Garden, Birds & Bees…

 

The proof that I do get up at 5.00am, just before making tea and scurrying back to bed…..

 

Preparing the cherry trees for grafting….the one in the foreground is the washing line!!

Never one to do anything by halves, Dave cut it down with his chainsaw.

These are the three grafts from the black cherry on to a wild cherry.

“Here’s one we did earlier”….    last year  !

Experiment time!

Don’t know if this will work, 2 of the 3 grafts died on this one last year, so we carefully (not with the chainsaw) took a sloping cut to clear all last years attempts away, and then grafted another one at the bottom of the slope to give some balance, the last years graft is well away, we had another like this, but when it was in full leaf, it was ripped off in a strong wind.

 

We believe this is a Cirl Bunting, the picture is taken through the window at about 15m, so i apologise for the poor quality, but i didn’t want it to fly away :O)

Thrush, we don’t see many here, but in parts of France where they do….they are considered a delicacy  :O(

Nice to see the crocus again, they first flowered in January, and then were killed off in the “big cold” these have been the more sensible group.

 

 

Now for the Bee’s………..we had some mason bees in our wall, so I hung up some canes for them…….now we have lots…….each day they are either, building chambers or hatching from them……I am assuming that the chap with the white “nose” is a new hatchling ?? anyone know?

The one in flight is an adult….as he has a red/ orange bottom…..

This is a very sad sight, these are the Mimosa trees, which at this time should be in full yellow blossom, however their bark has begun to peel, so they may only be good for the fire !

Kiwi waiting for her staff to attend to her, whilst she sunbathes…….