Look whose nesting in my loganberries!!!!

We have been watching a pair of Blackbirds who are always in out of the garden. They do like to steal the apple I put out for my tortoises and the berries from out fruit bushes. Often when we are out there they will sit on the wall or the fence and screech at us and they will often nip in and out of the loganberries. This afternoon I was picking some berries and the male flew right by me and into the leaves. It went very quiet, so tentatively, I moved the leaves to discover that he was sitting on a nest! This had to be camera time and although he gave me the evil eye he did not leave his task. I went back about an hour later and he had shifted his position so I left him in peace. Fast forward a few hours and I saw him flying off so I guessed the female had taken over and went to investigate and there she was sitting on the nest. I am assuming there are eggs and am hoping they will hatch; it would be fun to see babies. If you could see my garden and where they have nested it is not ideal so not sure how things will proceed. I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope!!

Male Blackbird on egg duty!!

He's got his beady eye on me!!

Female on evening duty!

Friday 13th or Bee swarm!!!

I've often wondered how Friday 13th superstition of bad luck came about! Well nothing bad was going to happen today! or have I spoken too soon.....

It was a beautiful hot day and the laundry was drying almost as quickly as I could hang it out. One of my tortoises had laid an egg but that's another story!!! One little mishap Embee ran the lawn mower over the wire and snapped it, he didn't get an electric shock just had to buy connecters and make a repair. While he was doing this I met up with a friend for our Friday swim, it was very pleasant and not many people there even better. 

My friend gave me a lift home and was coming in for a cup of tea and to collect some toys and games I had found out for her grand daughter. As we arrived outside our house the area above the back wall was black with a buzzing swarm of bees. I could not believe what I was seeing never having been close to a real swarm before. My first thought 'must get the camera this is good blog material'!! It probably should have been mustn't get too close!!

Funnily enough I wasn't worried about getting stung and they didn't seem interested in me even when I went quite close. After making tea I went back to take another look and thought they had gone but not so they had formed a huge block on my blueberry bush about a ft sq. 

I wasn't quite sure what to do but looked at the local council's pest control and saw a link for bees and from there I found a list of people who collected bees. Top of the list was someone who lived a mile from my home. I rang him and he said he could come immediately, I was impressed. He went on to explain that as he was going away for the weekend so he would need to leave the collection hive in my garden and collect on Monday. Not a problem in fact I was actually very interested. Gareth was as good as his word and arrived very quickly, bringing a temporary hive with him. He then proceeded to transfer the bees......

Dressed for action. Gareth said the bees were a gentle swarm but said if they started buzzing near your face that was a warning and to keep away. Sounds like good advice!

Getting the temp hive in place

Moving the bees

By the handful

Tom is inspecting the interlopers and he was not happy!

One of the blueberry branches laden with fruit had to be sacrificed  so that Gareth could reach the bees and make sure he got the queen in the centre of the heaving mass!

It seems to have worked and the stragglers are  leaving the blueberry bush and moving to the hive!


No one has been stung (so far) and I will be watching them carefully over the weekend and hopefully they will remain and be moved to their forever home on Monday. I am very grateful to Gareth for his prompt action and I'm hoping they produce some honey for him!! 

 Reflecting on my Friday 13th it's been an interesting day!!!

Berkeley Castle

Berkeley Castle 

I grew up living in the shadow of this famous old castle and because it was something I saw everyday, I did not really appreciate all the history that surrounded it. Of course as children we were fascinated that it had a dungeon and we all knew the legend about King Edward 11 being murdered there (red hot poker in a part of this anatomy that I will leave to your imagination...it seems more likely that he was suffocated; but legends are always better than reality!!!!!) 

The castle saw brief action during the English Civil War in the 1640's when it endured a three-day siege and capture by Parliamentary forces. Incredibly, Berkeley was one of England's few castles to withstand Cromwell's ruthless slighting campaign, which rendered them useless in further military action. At Berkeley Castle, the only damage of any significance is still visible: a 35 foot breach in the walling of the keep. In fact, even today, the Berkeleys are forbidden by law to repair the crack!

Inner courtyard, a lot of these rooms are bedrooms.

Looking through the arch on right is a gate to church, as children we used to stop the bridal cars here and it was tradition for a few coins to be thrown out!

The day we visited there were some ladies dressed in period costume. They looked very elegant and it was easy to imagine the castle as it had been!

Some of the old cannons

I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of one of these!!

View of one part of the garden taken from where the cannons were situated

Dungeon deep and dank not a place you would want to in!!

The room where Edward 11 was incarcerated until his death!

Drake's Room but it was never established that he actually stayed at the castle.

Drake's Chest

Now set out as a dining room but was originally the billiard room (clue being the lighting)

The great hall (my daughter taking pics and I tell you hers are so much better than mine!)

The Berkeley Arch

Not sure what the environmental health dept would make of these lead lined sinks in The Buttery!!

AddGood job we don't have to cope with one of these anymore!! (pestle and mortar!!)caption

Believe it or not these are picnic hampers...glad I don't have to carry them! They were apparently used by the family until relatively recently(this century)

One of the huge grates used for cooking. Imagine working here!!

House keepers room with old typewriter and sewing machine.

Wine and beer cellars. Some of the wine racks still had the original wine labels from 1800's (no wine though!!)

This is really only a little snippet but anyone interested should take a look at the link and in my opinion it is well worth a visit!!  Berkeley Castle

One gull less!!

I don't know what brought this gull down but yesterday I found it in my back yard. I think it had a broken wing. But it was already dead when I found it. Must have happened quite quickly because I was out there putting out rubbish and short time later I happened to look out of the window and saw it lying on the ground. I decided not to leave it for the foxes!!!  Poor thing

Motivation.......

............ is making someone happy.

My daughter's really enjoy my loganberry jam so as I had frozen my crop this year and still had some in the freezer from last year I decided that if I thawed them I would have to get myself in jam making mode!

When I combined all the fruit it actually wasn't that much 4lbs 6oz but I knew this would make a few jars. One of the reasons they like this jam is because I do not use the recommended amount of sugar (always put less-guess work) so the jam is slightly tart. I don't know about you but I really do not like the overly-sweet shop bought jam.

mashing the loganberries

One thing I don't like is the messy hob where the boiling jam splatters!

End result

Well it only made seven pots but I'm sure that will make my girls happy!!!

Day 24 Just because.....

When you are trying to post daily and you don't have anything interesting to say or share what do you do!!!!!

Look for a photo you intended to share back in the summer. It's beginning to get cold here so I say roll on next summer. In the meantime I can look back on the last one!

Day 15 Halfway!

The bog title has nothing to do with the post, it's just that I've managed to do a post for each of the past fifteen days and that's halfway through the month.

So what do you grow in the winter! Well a friend gave us some onion sets so we're giving it a go!!

 No sooner had Embee put them in the garden, when we found something had tried to dig them up. We're not sure if it was the birds, a squirrel, or even a fox  so for now they are protected and they have begun to shoot. So far so good and I'll try and remember to tell you how well they did come Spring!!

Day 14 The ones that got away!

Embee was digging over the little raised bed where we plant a few vegetables every year and found these from earlier in the year.

There won't be enough for a meal but they will not go to waste!!

Day 7= Eye Spy

The sometimes gardener decided to spend a few minutes in the garden this morning and I spied him from the window! I think he actually spends more time chatting to passers-by than he does actually gardening. However, he did pot up a couple of plants that will be left on the wall for someone to collect later. So that's a good job done!

Day 4 = Fun Monday=A favourite Flower

I am struggling a bit to post about my favourite plant at this time of the year my garden is looking rather bleak. I had to get rid of all my indoor plants last year (long story) and my back garden only has one little bit of colour. We had storms all day yesterday so I couldn't even get into the garden to take any pictures. We have some sun today so I just rushed out and took a photo of the pots of chrysanthemums that I look at from my kitchen window. I do love to see some colour but they will probably only last a few more weeks.

Now if you were to ask my tortoises what their favourite plant was they would not hesitate!!!

Well that's me done for today. Will be visiting you all later!

Day 2....Disappointment

A few years ago when I first read about goji berries being the new superfood I decided to try and grow a plant in a tub. Not ideal as they really need plenty of space and, apparently they grow like a hedge in the wild. Then a couple of years back it actually produced a few fruit and I thought at last it had become established! That year it also got some severe pruning as it was creeping over the fence and I didn't want to be a nuisance to my neighbour. Well that seemed to send the plant into shut down as no fruit for next couple of years. Then a few months ago I noticed a few flowers, and I do mean a few!! Last week I was able to pick my crop......wait for it!!!!!

I'm still trying to decide whether to keep it  or give up!!!! What do you think??

Day 1..........Autumn

Not sure if I will be able to find enough of interest to manage a daily blog throughout November, which is what an blogging buddy has suggested. We had such a lovely community back in the days when I seemed to have plenty to say for myself. I cannot believe it was 7 years ago that I first started, what was to be a daily diary.  For several years I did manage to write daily...so how difficult will it be to manage just one month....well time will tell!!!!

Halloween was a damp squid... I got my tin of goodies ready and we didn't even get one visitor!!!!!

 A couple of weeks back as the temperature began to fall I noticed a lot of ladybirds scurrying about in the garden and when I looked closely I also noticed different marking

Embee even brought one indoors  somehow it got onto his head and  tickled his bald patch ending up on his crossword!!!

Autumn is also the time for fungi  found this in one of my flower tubs

I am keen to know what type of spider this is, found it trying to get in through the kitchen door. So if anyone can help I will be grateful.