PINCH PUNCH I didn’t have my bino’s with me but could still see a greenfinch, plumply sitting on a thin wisp of branch from a silver birch which stands elegantly above the conifers and shrubs in an ornamental allotment plot we have here in St James called ’Dorothy’s Garden’. Greenfinch provided a pleasant and appropriate musical accompliment to the [...]
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Posts Tagged ‘starling’
1 February 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman PINCH PUNCH
Monday, February 1st, 201031 January 2010 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman BIG GARDEN BIRD WATCH
Sunday, January 31st, 2010BIG GARDEN BIRD WATCH Have you noticed how many birds there are in the garden at the moment? During the cold weather after New Year we’ve been inundated with blackbirds and other thrushes, tits and finches. Bullfinches, stocky black and pink fellows who show a distinctive white rump when flying away, are as exciting to [...]
Read More »30 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman A TRIP OUT GLASTONBURY WAY
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009A TRIP OUT GLASTONBURY WAY Flatlands and levels to the south and east of Glastonbury move me whenever visiting or passing through. It’s the mix of water-filled ditches and streamside willow pollards; the fact that often you have no view beyond the first big hedge. This Somerset landscape, though quite different, none-the-less takes me back [...]
Read More »25 December 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman THE SOIL IS COLD
Friday, December 25th, 2009THE SOIL IS COLD The soil is cold but, because this is where I want to be, it’s not a problem. The cold soil feels ace. So does the weeded edge and bright, squinty-eyed view across open plot, the fresh wash of breeze across my cheeks, chatter of spadger starling et al, drop dead gorgeous [...]
Read More »30 August 2009 DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman SUNDAY MORNING AT THE END OF AUGUST, THREE LADS ON BIKES IN MISTY SHASTON, SOUNDS OUTSIDE THE BACK PASSAGE
Sunday, August 30th, 200930 August 2009 SUNDAY MORNING AT THE END OF AUGUST (Yesterday afternoon and) This morning the plots were full of allotment folk bending backs, hoeing, cutting, shifting piles of this and that. As a feather-soft drift of misty rain came in westerly before lunchtime, with quiet focus so we worked. Much to do, not a [...]
Read More »14 June 2009: DIRTY NAILS’ BLOG by Joe Hashman PLANTING OUT LEEKS
Monday, June 15th, 200914 June 2009 PLANTING OUT LEEKS Most of my leeks are in their final resting places. From seeds sown in trays during February and pricked out into nursery beds when like blades of grass, now is the time to get the pencil-thick alliums into the main bed with fingers crossed for a decent haul to [...]
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