The baby swallows have arrived! A couple of days ago, I found half an eggshell on the laundry floor and the same day the parent swallows started zooming in and out, collecting beaks full of bugs for their new babies.
Here is the eggshell, next to a 5 pence piece for scale. And then I thought that the size of an English 5 pence would possibly mean nothing to readers outside the UK so I popped half a walnut on t’other side for greater clarity, walnuts being a universal indicator of size and all that. Did you know that a cat’s brain is the same size as a walnut? See? It’s all in the walnut perspective. But can you imagine the size of baby bird that emerged from such a tiny egg? And that, in a mere few weeks, they will have grown into adult birds big enough to tackle the thousands of miles flight back to Africa? It’s madly wonderful!
Before I slide into prose of complete drivel, I am also pleased to report that the wagtail neighbours in the wisteria have also hatched their babies, who I think are a bit older than the swallow babies on account of the racket they are making. ‘Peep, peep, peepetty, PEEP!!’ they go, as the parent wagtails charge in and out of the foliage on non-stop feeding duties.
Of course, the nests being where they are, which is in close proximity to our back door, means I am stepping directly into a busy flight path every time I leave the house. There’s been a couple of near misses but the birds are good at swerving and I am good at shrieking, ‘Eeeek!’ so between us all we have, thus far, avoided any collisions.
The seeds I sowed 10 days ago in the greenhouse - sage, tarragon, marigolds and runner beans - have all emerged. The runner bean seeds were three years old so my expectations of germination were low. To that end, I sowed 32 of them, and yup - all 32 have emerged. Typical, isn’t it? Never mind - who doesn’t love a runner bean, eh?
Between rain showers today, I nipped out and trained the hops up some garden canes. They’ve reached a height of over five feet and some of them were being determinedly flippy floppy. And I also I installed canes to support the sweet peas. The grape vine needed tying in at some places but it’s looking pretty darn good and small bunchlets of grapes are already emerging. The single fig that was growing on the fig tree has vanished. I suspect avian sabotage.
I was slightly disappointed that the People’s Choice Garden that I voted for at the Chelsea Flower Show didn’t win. But then my faith in the sound judgement of the British public lessens with every passing month. Ah well, some of us have taste, and some don’t. I’m already feeling a sense of gloom descending over the result of the General Election on 4th July.
Onwards and upwards though! Life in this little corner of the world is good.
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