Today, we had a visitor

One sunny day earlier this summer I was chatting with a neighbour in her front garden when we were disturbed by the sound of cats getting ready to fight.  I walked along the road till I found the site of the battle. A large black and white cat was facing a small black cat and looked ready to establish that this was her territory.  I have often seen the small black cat, but the larger cat was new to me, and it looked like she would win if she started a fight.  So I intervened from a distance and the black cat was able to run for cover while the larger cat was distracted.
Now, when I see the small cat she stops and miaows and has taken to visiting our back garden.  Today, while I was working in the kitchen I spotted her sitting patiently close to the large bay tree where there is plenty of cover for mice and birds.  I think she was probably hoping to catch a meal, but her owners have placed a bell on her collar so I don't know how successful she is at hunting.  She certainly doesn't look hungry.

She seems to have a few grey hairs

                                                                           

Does she remind you of anyone?  

 

Signs of Autumn

Early on Saturday morning, the air felt very moist, but the sun was shining and there was a clear blue sky. When F went into the garden he found a large cobweb, glinting with moisture and barring the pathway to the garden gate. 

Not wanting to miss a good opportunity for taking a photo, I joined him in the garden and there were dozens of spiders' webs around the garden, all glinting in the early morning sun.

 











                                                                              


By Saturday lunchtime, the webs had dried out and were not as noticeable.  F and I set off for a couple of days in Wales, about a hundred and twenty miles away from home and enjoyed a pleasant journey through mainly rural areas, the trees along the route beginning to show the first signs of autumn.

Travelling back late Sunday evening we arrived at home round about midnight.  The next morning looking through the kitchen window onto the back garden I spotted masses of mushrooms(?) trailing across the grass near the stump of an apple tree. . They definitely were not there when we left home about thirty-six hours earlier and B says they weren't there on Sunday morning.  They certainly appeared as if by magic

F cut down the tree about three years ago.  It was very productive but was too close to the house so it had to go, and the tree was too large to transplant.   In the years since, the remaining stump has produced many shoots which have been removed so I think the tree has finally given up.  The fungi may well be helping to breakdown the woody roots.

I have no idea what sort of mushrooms they are so I have not picked and cooked them.  I am going to post a photo  on iSpot.org and see if any of the members can identify them.

On Monday morning they looked like glossy light brown domes but by Tuesday morning they had flattened and darkened.  Thoses with sharp eyes will note that grass is in short supply on the back 'lawn'.

An unusual sight

At the weekend F and I were in Mid Wales when we spotted this creature.

A very bright caterpillar, the size of my index finger, was crawling around in the grass on the wooded hillside.  I had no idea what sort of caterpillar it was,but I knew I had never seen anything like this before. 
When we got back home I searched on the internet but could not identify it so I tried the ISpot website.  Having put the picture on the site it didn't take long for the creature to be identified. 
It is the caterpillar of the goat moth.  The goat month lays its eggs on tree trunks and the caterpillar lives inside the tree trunk feeding on wood for five years then when it is ready to pupate it leaves the tree trunk and searches on the ground for a place to bury itself while it changes from caterpillar to moth.
The blurb on the website says that this caterpillar is quite rare and not seen very often as they leave their tree trunk nursery and find an underground home within twenty-four hours.  When it emerges next June or July as a moth, it has a very short life, not feeding but finding a mate and laying its eggs on a tree trunk, ready for the next five year cycle to start.

Mish-mash

This week was the last meeting of the reading group I belong to for a couple of months, there is always a break for the summer holidays.  Normally we meet in the local library but the group decided to hold the meeting at the local pub, and enjoy an evening meal as well as talking about the book for this month 'Still Alice'  by Lisa Genova.  .
Some members enjoyed the book more than others but all agreed the subject 'Early Onset Alzheimers' was not a comfortable read.  Perhaps being a group of 'mature ladies' some of the signs are familiar to us on a personal level - What did I want to get from upstairs?
But the company was good and the meal was enjoyable.  I felt very noble ordering grilled fish and salad when most of the group were enjoying traditional fish and chips.  When my meal arrived, the person who took my order had made a mistake and brought fish in batter as well as chips - not a lettuce leaf in sight.  They did offer to take it away and cook the meal I had ordered, but I weakened and said it would be alright.

Gardening -  this year the strawberries have done well, in spite of the very changeable weather we are experiencing, but they are coming to an end.  We've enjoyed  strawberries on breakfast cereal, as a desert with ice cream, or just dipped into the bowl of strawberries from the fridge. But B has used them to make a gorgeous fresh cream, strawberry and almond gateau.  It didn't last very long and I'm sure we've put on pounds that need to be worked off at the gym.  B also added them to a summer pudding along with redcurrants and blackcurrants -  and we gave some strawberries to our new neighbours.

The blackbirds in the garden have not been deprived - there were about five pots of strawberries (as well as the raised bed, which was protected by a mesh cage) and have helped themselves as the strawberries ripened.  They ignore the wild strawberries which have seeded themselves around the borders -  they definitely prefer the garden variety.

The peas will soon be ready to be picked - again, this year's weather has suited them and they have thrived.  I grow several different varieties and these are the earlist to produce pods and plenty of them.

But this last photo with the sun behind the plants shows that the peas have to fill out quite a lot before they will be worth picking.

A day out

Yesterday I went out for the day with a group of retired teachers from Staffordshire - they travel to different places of interest several times during the year. My neighbour, also a retired teacher, and I share the transport, so this time I did the driving.  We needed to arrive at our first destination sometime roundabout 10 o'clock for coffee in a village called Alton, very close to Alton Towers, a very popular theme park - if you like roller coasters etc.  When we were all gathered we started our walk around the village.

We had a guided tour of St Peter's Church, a simple church with very little ornament.  The internal arches were rounded, while the outside arches were pointed.  I don't know whether this points to different building peiods.

We left this church just as the rain started and walked further in the village till we came to Alton castle.  This is all that remains of the castle after it was destroyed during the Civil War, about 500 years ago.

This Victorian building, also known as Alton castle, was built next to the original castle and is almost two hundred years old.  It was designed by A.W.N. Pugin, an early Victorian architect, who was prominent in the Gothic Revival style of architecture.  The green and yellow tiles on the roof can be seen from miles away.

Time for lunch and the group travelled five miles onto Cheadle, a small country town where we enjoyed a pub lunch, before our second guided tour of the day at the Catholic Church of St Giles, designed by Pugin and considered to be his finest work.

The church is elaborately decorated (and of course I took quite a lot of photos), but they do not do justice to the building.  The west doors are guarded by these rampant lions.

A Talbot fighting dog is on guard at each side of this window.

This is the east facing window behind the high altar, again designed by Pugin.

Looking through the rood screen into the ceiling of the church, every surface intricately painted in bright colours and gold.

This side chapel  gives some idea of the amount of decoration, repeated throughout the building.

By the time we had been around this church we needed to go back to the Discovery Centre to be feasted with tea and cakes, then make our way back home.  It made a memorable day out, and worth a second visit.

A theatrical treat

Last weekend we went to an outdoor performance of Much Ado About Nothing at Stafford Castle.  This year was the 25th year that Stafford Council has sponsored a Shakespeare performance at the castle and this year is the first time we have attended a performance.  Having seen Shakespeare performances in the past at Stratford,  and London and on film and TV productions  we did not realise  just how entertaining the pro-am cast would make the performance.  The production was as good as any we have seen and we think that we will be attending annually from now on.

The play setting was in the early years of the twentieth century, at the end of the Second World War.  To warm -up the audience there was a pre-show entertainment featuring songs from the period and of course the audience were encouraged to join in - a bit like panto.  The quality of musicianship of the actors was a bonus - the fourteen actors, they all seemed to be able to play and sing - accompanying the audience participation on a wide variety on instruments.
                                                                                  

Once the play proper started, it was true to the script and many of the phrases we recognised, not realising that they were from Shakespeare.  The actors brought out the comedy, making the plot easy tó follow. 

When the interval came we had time to walk up the hill to the foot of the castle and enjoy the view from the high vantage point.

Springtime?

It's almost the end of March and though there are plenty of signs of new growth in the garden, the weather is so inconsistent that there is no hope of getting outside to plant this years veg patch - the soil is so saturated it will get compacted if I try to dig the ground.  Still I have plans! The strawberry raised beds have disintegrated beyond repair so new raised beds have been purchased and at the first good dry spell F will be required to assemble them around the old ones.  The soil and last years plants are still intact.They will just need extra compost and a few extra plants, grown from last year's runners.
There is blossom on the apricot trees for the first time ever this year, so B hopes to be able to cook with our home grown apricots.  All we require is prolonged sunny weather and a lack of pests.

House plants - just to keep in practice when outdoor gardening is not possible.  I have had two orchids for about three years now, one white and one purple.  They live on a south facing window sill and take very little work - just a weekly/fortnightly soak and some liquid plant feed.

This photograph was taken on July 22nd, 2013 and shows several stems of bee orchid blooms on one plant.  It has been in flower since then, all through last year and has now decided it has produced enough flowers - I'm hoping it is resting and will bloom again in future months.

The photo below shows the white orchid that  has come into bloom in the last few weeks.  It has several flower stems and looks as though it will give several months of flowers.  For comparison, the last few flowers on the last stem of the purple orchid.

....  and for those with imagination, the last bud which has still to open, looks like a cartoon mouse.