As we returned from Burlington, the sky began to cloud over and the light changed.
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Usually, the return journey is the less interesting, but this day was the opposite.
In the above area, hundreds of plastic-covered hay bales dotted the fields.
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In the changing light, I saw that the countryside had a Fall tint which had not been obvious as we travelled north in the bright glare of morning.
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Sunflowers are very popular and come in numerous varieties of short and tall.
Grant cut down his enormously tall ones recently. The flowers became too heavy for the stalks which bent over, blocking them from sunlight so the seeds did not ripen properly and they became infested with worms, so not a great success, despite their impressive growth.
If we survive to see another Spring, we’ll try for shorter sunflowers!
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The above I think looks more like an impressionist painting than a photograph.
And I prefer it as such.
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Some trees had really embraced the change and quite a few leaves are already down.
Next day was very wet, but by mid afternoon the rain had stopped, so I went out to do top-ups of nuts and carrots and stopped to look down…
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You know I can never not take pictures of raindrops!
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That “rain event” was followed by another and next morning I happened to walk out past Grant’s wildflower bed:
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Next to the lilac bush, spirea had put out a last bloom. I don’t know if the bush will survive. As you can see it has a blight, as does the lilac. From what I gather, all the blighted limbs need to be removed and I have already cut back much of the lilac.
It is a sad process, but I want to save the bushes if possible.
Grant mentioned plans to “trim” the bushes in front of the kitchen window. They certainly need it, but his idea of trimming is to reduce the hedge to stumps, which he did with two other bushes a couple of years ago.
His view is that it is pointless to nicely trim bits off the top that will swiftly grow back and need trimming again next year. Why not do the job “properly?”
His intention, back then, was to deal with the whole row, but his efforts came to a grinding halt when Little Man escaped and failed to return. I pointed out that our wee boy was unlikely to come home with the racket in the hedge going on.
Then, when Little Man was once more safe inside, the weather collapsed for the duration and that was the end of that project. I was left with a row of bushy hedges and a big gap with two naked stalks, like a set of teeth where a cap has broken off. I shook my head, but was assured they would flourish and when Spring came, the bushes had a growth spurt like never before.
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So I am not worried about the hedge which I know will recover from harsh treatment.
My concern is for Master Sparrow and his flock. There are plenty of trees and other perches available for their convenience, but they like to congregate in the hedge.
And we like listening to them.
What if they take offence and move elsewhere? They easily could, after all, they were not here when we first arrived.
But the project doesn’t look like happening anytime soon, so there is time to work on modifying the drastic plan.
If all else fails, there’s always sabotage.
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In my experience with cutting back hedges, the Sparrows do return the next year. Same with the Wood Pigeons and Robins, all of which nest in the hedges front and back. I really like the solitary white house with the red door and the shutters outside the windows. I always wanted to live in a ‘door in the middle house’. That one would be perfect for me, with no visible neighbours.
Best wishes, Pete.
The start of autumn colours and lots of raindrop photos – love it! The gardener here on the farm also trimmed the hedges until there was almost nothing left, and then they grew back very bushy – and with that, the birds also came back and sing me a song every morning while I do the dishes 😊.