Author: Clare Topping

Proud parent announces arrival of beans.

A few weeks ago I planted some courgette, bean and sweetcorn seeds. The courgettes, as expected, took about a week to start to grow in the heated propagator and four out of the six have been sat outside this week in the ‘mini-greenhouse’ that we have outside. The beans and sweetcorn were put into root trainers and therefore were not in a heated propagator (although they were next to the radiator in the garage). These have taken a little longer, but I am not the proud parent of a number of healthy looking beans and sweetcorn. I have tried two varieties of French beans this year, Hildora, a dwarf variety with a yellow pod that I tried last year, but which fed only the slugs, and Blauhilde, a purple podded variety. All of the Blauhilde seeds appear to be growing, and all but two of the Hildoras have made the effort. (Seven out of eight of the sweetcorn minipop are also growing.) I am so pleased by the progress of my beans that I took a photograph of them relaxing in the Spring sunshine yesterday.

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Cetti surprise.

I stopped in at my favourite reserve, Brandon Marsh, today on my way home from a trip to Coventry. It was the first time in quite a while that I had been and I was looking forward to it.
Although the weather was definitely on the chilly side and I was only there for about an hour I had a fantastic time.

It is a good time of year to go birdwatching, the summer visitors are here, but the trees are only just coming in to leaf so they can’t hide in the way they will be able to by the time May comes around. Hence I managed to get some really good views of several chiffchaffs; as always I heard them before I found them. There were also lots of blackcaps about, still in groups, although I assume this will no longer be the case once they have paired up and have territories to defend.

Also of note were a large number of swallows, sand and house martins, and a solitary and somewhat cold looking common tern, probably wondering just what he was doing back already. I saw a family of coots, which I thought was quite early, do they breed earlier than other birds, or is it just that they leave the nest soon after they are born? The parents were busy herding them into the reeds when a heron flew over.
I also got some good views various waders and ducks and spent quite a bit of time watching lapwings continuously mob a crow – I assume they are nesting there.

The highlight for me though was my first sighting of a Cetti’s warbler. I heard a bird singing very loudly and had no idea what it was (to my mind it even beat the wren as top noisy bird), and turned round and saw a little brown job (LBJ) behind me. I didn’t know what this was at the time, but resolved to check it out when I got home. I kept hearing these birds all around the reserve (when they could get a word in past the chiffchaffs), and luckily one kept singing when I was in a hide with a couple of birdwatchers who knew their stuff and they told me that this was a Cetti’s warbler, but that they were difficult to see. On getting back I checked the bird books and yes, you’ve guessed it, I did indeed get a fantastic, if brief, view of a Cetti’s. For anyone who is interested here is a link to the RSPB website where you can listen to the sound of a Cetti’s warbler (Cettia Cetti).

I also saw the obligatory kingfisher as I was rushing back to the shop to buy some more sunflower hearts to replace those my garden friends have diligently thrown over the garden – sorry Nick, you’ll see one eventually.

Interesting Articles

Just thought that I would post a quick summary of a few articles that I found in the last couple of weeks that I thought were interesting.

The BBC website has reported on the latest proof that the Thames is getting cleaner – the discovery that short snouted seahorses, normally found in the Mediterranean have been discovered living and breeding at three sites along the river.

New Scientist has recently reported that bamboo fibres can act as an antibacterial agent and protect against UV, although there is apparently some dispute about this. However, as someone who owns several bamboo t-shirts (purchased from www.bambooclothing.co.uk) I can certainly say that they are very comfortable, seem to wick sweat away better than other t-shirts and also seem to reduce static. This supplier also claims high environmental and ethical credentials.

In the Times dated 8th April 2008 there was an article stating that as a nation we apparently throw away 4.5 million apples every day – I found that truly shocking (I thought at first they meant 4.5 million per year and had to read the article twice).
The full report is due to be published by WRAP (Waste Resource Action Plan) next month. In addition we are apparently throwing away 5.1 million potatoes and 1.6 million bananas. When added together the average household throws away £400 of food every year. This is at the same time as people are claiming they cannot afford to feed their families with fresh, local, free-range or organic food.

Also in the Times (dated 11th April 2008) there was an article about the nation’s railways. I was surprised to learn that last year passengers travelled 30 billion miles on our much maligned rail network, more than any other year in peacetime. This is despite rising prices and delays. The article was highlighting a report from the Association of Train Operating Companies which included a vision for 2057 by which time it is expecting passenger numbers will have trebled. This calls for high speed rail lines to Scotland along the east and west coasts and another to Cardiff as well as a number of other links operating at conventional speed. Unfortunately the government (and this seems to be the case whatever the flavour) seem relatively non-commital about rail travel and its ability to alleviate congestion and overcrowding in the South East and seem to have developed a grand total of 0 plans for the long term, although they may think about commissioning a study some time.

Garden Duties

Today I decided that I had better get on with sowing some of the seeds that I had planned to do last weekend. So in went the courgettes, two types of beans (blauhilde and hildora), some sweetcorn and cavolo nero (I have never grown this last one before so it will definitely be a case of trial and error).
Following on from my four carrot success of last year, we have put some seeds in a smaller pot this year and are trying our hands at growing them as baby veg. I have also started some salad leaves and radish off. All of these are things I want to try succession planting to try and prolong the season.
I also took the plunge and decided to pot on some tomatoes that I started off last month. I am trying coir pots this time so that I am less likely to kill them off when they get into their final pots.
Other things that seem to be growing OK at the moment are the gooseberry (lots of flower buds already, but I am checking for sawfly infestations daily after the wipeout that was last year) and the blackcurrant (it has finally been put back in the ground after being held in a pot for a couple of years whilst we relandscaped the back garden). Of more concern is the blackberry (oregon thornless) which we kept in a pot for too long due to delays in the aforementioned landscaping and which does not show many signs of life yet (but I live in hope).
I need to plant the seed potatoes soon as they are well chitted, but every time I look at the weather forecast there is some frost expected. They are going in tubs, so should be better protected, so they will be going in next weekend, whatever the weather.

Spring flower surprises

In my last post I mentioned that I had been out and about looking for a cowslip to take a picture of and had failed miserably. This may seem a bit of a strange problem given that I had been expounding on the fact that there was a multitude of the little harbingers of spring about. Well, there are, just not within a short walk of my house. I started on the industrial estate where I had seen some on my way home. The problem is that I could only find one, it was looking a bit sorry for itself and I couldn’t get a picture without an incredibly unphotogenic industrial unit in the background.
Never fear I thought, I will find some in the grassy area near the reservoir and posh houses, or on the verges on the main road. Ha! All I found were dandelions and daisies, pretty, but not what I was after. Where was I going wrong? According to Wikipedia (I have just checked this in case I was being a muppet and was looking in the wrong place) as well as somehow apparently being used for the treatment of headaches, whooping cough and tremors Primula Veris (cowslip) is ‘a low growing herbaceous perennial plant…found…[in] open fields, meadows’. Not such a muppet.

In case you are thinking why didn’t she just go back to where she found them in the first place, the clouds were grey and threatening rain (and delivering hail) and I only wanted to take a quick snapshot, I thought it would be easy!

Still, all was not lost, I took the photograph of the celandine shown in the previous post, found some grape hyacinth growing photogenically at the base of a tree (shown below left, but must go back and take a better picture with my other camera) and discovered a host of wood anemones (below right) growing in a spot I discovered a few months back that was covered in winter aconites. All in all, not a bad afternoon’s work.

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A walk in the spring sunshine (and showers).

I had intended to take a walk around the Country Park today to see if there were any further signs of spring – I hear a chiffchaff most days now, but I wanted something more, I wanted to see a blackcap, final proof that spring was here. However, as is usually the way with me, my tummy got the better of me and the thought of a walk into Daventry to buy food for dinner won the day.

Still, there is a lot to be said for a walk in the sunshine, especially when the first thing that you see as you get to the old railway track is a male blackcap. It was sat in the shrubs not more than five feet away from me! Definite bonus, two birds could be felled with the one stone throwing. Still, we wandered happily into town via the edge of the Country Park and got lots of lovely food for dinner. (There were some English raspberries – grown in a glasshouse? Not sure, would buying these be ethical? I will probably be tempted the next time I see them.) Anyway, I digress (stomach winning again!), the main point that I wanted to get to was the vast numbers of spring flowers that I saw out and about all you have to do is stare at the verges! Celandines were still flowering their souls out (I thought that they would have gone over by now), cowslips and violets were also in abundance.

I went out to try and get a photograph of a cowslip to brighten my blog, but all I got was wet, so you will have to make do with one I prepared earlier (well, last year). I’ve also included a picture of a celandine, because I did manage to take one of those.

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Grow your own veg.

One of the things that has come to mean more and more to me in life is my garden. This isn’t because I want to be the next big garden landscaper, I don’t even get much of a kick out of working out what looks good where and what kind of soil I have and whether a plant needs full sun or shade (despite the obvious importance of such things). No, it is much simpler than that, I like growing things. I get a feeling of immense satisfaction from watching things grow, change, mature. From the seeds that I plant each year, to the hazel that I planted as a twig six years ago that has amazed both of us since by both its size and how well it fits in to the garden (and the fact that it survived despite my planting style which has been described as a little roughshod).

I listened to a podcast today that suggested that in a recession more people grow their own vegetables to save money – I am not sure that this works unless you have an allotment sized veg garden, or you eat a lot of courgettes! I think that for me the chance to nurture something successfully (sometimes), to learn from it to do it better next year and to produce something that tastes better than any equivalent bought in a shop, that hasn’t travelled a long way to get to my plate is more important than saving money (and I am apparently incredibly tight with my money).

So, growing your own veg – great exercise, relaxing and good for you and the environment – I am amazed everyone doesn’t give it a try. If you are starting out I suggest courgettes and / or rhubarb – both will grow however much you neglect them!

My first attempt at a carbon footprint calculation was less than satisfactory.

Whilst browsing the internet today I decided that I would make a first pass at looking at our carbon footprint so I checked out the government website. Whilst I admit that I didn’t have my energy bills to hand so it possibly wasn’t as accurate as it could be I found the recommendations that it gave to be somewhat disappointing.
Firstly I should apparently buy a microwave as this is more economical than heating in an electric oven – sorry but I cannot find a use for a microwave, my kitchen is not big enough to fit one in, we do a lot of our cooking on the gas hob and most people I know use a microwave to heat things that I would use a hob for or to reheat things that they should have eaten hot, i.e. they use the oven and then the microwave.
Their second recommendation was to buy an A rated dishwasher – first I would need to buy a bigger house to put it and all of the extra pots that I would need to buy in order to fill it – we don’t create that much washing up. Am I missing something or is it better not to buy all of these electricity using appliances that use up quickly vanishing resources?
Another recommendation involved travel – I should walk or cycle for small journeys – it wasn’t listening, I already do that. Then when I replace my car I should get one that is more efficient – sorry car manufacturers, but I am not planning to do that for a long time. My mileage is small enough that I am hoping to keep this car for at least the next 10 years rather than buying another one.
I noticed nothing on the website about recycling, reducing waste, buying less.
Now call me cynical if you like, but many of the recommendations seemed to me to involve me spending more money, a more efficient this, an extra that, and therefore creating more tax revenue for the economy.
I think I need to find a better starting place in my bid to live a greener lifestyle.

Natural Highlights to the Working Day

I have been particularly busy at work this week due to customer demands and staff absences. This has been made worse by the warm air and the blue sky taunting me from outside.

However, when taking a breather and having a look out across the car park and the small amount of green edging the site I spotted a couple of invaders – red-legged partridges. Now I realise that these are pretty common, but it was the pleasure that seeing them somewhere unexpected that made them special. They were running at some speed across the car park – spooked by the incoming lorries, at one point passing about 10 feet in front of my window. Added to that was the joy that pointing these out to someone else brought (especially as he thinks that I make the birds up).

Whilst I was trying to see where they had gone to I had the unexpected bonus of seeing my first Brimstone butterflies of the year dancing in the air near a pair of carrion crows picking up nesting materials.

Highlights like this almost make it worthwhile going to work.

Spring has sprung.

OK, so maybe it is obvious to most people that it is now spring, but some of us have our own signs that the season has changed (for me Winter comes with the arrival of goosanders). So, the clocks have gone forward, the daffodils are out and, yesterday, so was the sun, and it was warm, but to me, the telltale sign of spring occurred this morning on my way to work. It was the sound of a chiffchaff calling. I stopped to listen and make sure, but there really is no mistaking the call of a chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita).

According to the Bird Guides website which has pictures and more information about the chiffchaff, the best way to distinguish this little brown job from the equally small and brown Willow Warbler is by its black legs. In my experience I rarely see one before I have heard it and the call is enough to distinguish it from anything else.

I have seen them in Winter, but they usually return to nest in Spring, the ones landing in these shores are thought to have wintered in southern Europe and Africa. So, the next time you are out and about listen for the call of one of the earlier and most vociferous migrants to these shores.