Wednesday 9th August 2023 - About Wildlife, Strand Club and New Pavement

I forgot to mention in my first blog this month; the swifts left at the end of July. Always sad when they leave, I shall miss seeing them in the mornings wheeling and squealing over the top of the village shop. Moving on to butterflies, there have been an abundance of gatekeepers on the field between Madams Lane and the allotments, as well as meadow browns and the other day there were holly blues and a skipper too. Yesterday afternoon, the buddleia on Madams Lane was full of red admirals feasting on the blooms but only one peacock had joined them. Moving on again, this time to moths, Peter’s carrots, covered in insect netting to keep off the carrot root fly, have been hosting silver y moths. He released about ten today; they left behind their empty cocoons and munched carrot foliage. As they favour brassicas, we can only assume that there were eggs left in or on the soil after Peter pulled up the purple sprouting plants, prior to sowing the carrot seed. I was disappointed not to have seen a hummingbird hawmoth this year, until I spotted one enjoying the flowers on a phlox at the back of the flower border.

This morning The Strand Club held a coffee morning in the Sports Pavilion. I went over but declined any refreshments as this afternoon is our monthly Ex WI meet up which will include cake. I did however buy raffle tickets and made a donation for a pot plant holder and a jigsaw from the bric-a-brac stalls. The proceeds from the morning will be donated to the charity, MIND. Back home I had a bit of an accident. A container of beans, cooked using my Greek recipe, with onions, tomatoes and olive oil slipped and fell on the floor, as I was on my way with it to the freezer. Fortunately, it fell onto a hard floor but what a mess; the oil made it a very messy clean up. I was thankful though, it hadn’t fallen on carpet, otherwise I think we would have been contacting Colin’s Cleaning Service, in the village, or worse still, replacing the carpet which is only a year old.

When you live in a village, with a relatively small number of villagers, then anything new happening is soon common knowledge. The highlight of this week’s conversations, is a new stretch of pavement on Pauls Lane; this is on the east side of Danish House Gardens (see today’s photos). The bank, which has now been removed, was a bone of contention with residents of the Gardens, simply because the County Council have failed to cut back the foliage growing on the bank, which blocks the view for cars pulling out. I have heard the Council were supposed to cut the bank five times a year but have not even managed once a year. During the process of removing the bank I understand that ‘treasure’ has been found, but I’ll leave that here without further details. Welcomed by the residents of Danish House Gardens, others have commented the money would have been better spent filling in some of the pot holes in the village. As for me, the foliage was frequented each year by orange tip butterflies; I will certainly miss seeing them.