Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

Hebes can be damaged by cold/frost, and I find that the variegated ones are more susceptible, as are the larger-leaved ones. It could be that the damaged one is in a slightly more exposed spot than the others (maybe prevailing cold wind from one side?). Certainly the ones near the house and patio will be more sheltered.

 

8th February 2025

The trailcam was busy again on the night of the 7th into 8th, with a local cat, a very athletic mouse and the fox. The camera, a Campark TC06, is shown top left. The mouse made a number of visits to the bird table, frequently leaping from ground level onto the tree. The cat is very alert, ears constantly twitching and always looking around. The fox seems quite inquisitive.



This is the camera tree. It is quite an interesting shape, with several crossing and fused branches. More of that shortly. On the 7th, we also had a number of daytime activations, including a Pheasant, Robin, Blackbird and Bluetit.

 

While out checking on the camera, I noticed another group of Snowdrops, right in line with the central woodland exit. These will need digging up and moving as they are also right along the line of the lawn edging project.



Back to the camera tree, here's two of the fused branches. The top image shows two branches that must have started to cross many years ago. Both are at least four inches diameter and have fused at the crossing, before separating again higher up.

The lower image shows a 'Y' in one of the main trunks, where it passes either side of the other main trunk. There are several other branches where this will also happen, given enough time. If the tree was cut down, I'd imagine there would be some very interesting grain patterns.

 

9th February 2024

We've also just bought another bird feeder, this time hanging on the tree on the outside of the woodland. This one we can see from the Sun Room. It was hanging less than a minute and I was only about ten feet away, when the Bluetits and Finches started swooping down onto it. So I grabbed some phone video to lift some stills off, before retreating to a distance and using my DSLR with the 300mm lens and x2 teleconverter for some additional pictures.



For the rest of today, there's been long periods of nothing, followed by fifteen minutes of frantic feeding.

 

It might just be the perspective, but that looks like a very large mouse.

 

Must be just the close up capture, as he looks normal sized in the videos, sitting on the bird table! Compare that part of the tree with the cat picture.

 

15/16th February 2025

Lynne and I had a wander around the garden yesterday, discussing plans for the garden for this year. Stuff that needs moving, this to go, levelling parts of the lawn, woodland work. While we didn't actually do anything ( it was far too cold ), we had a better idea of what needs doing first as the weather warms up.

Indoors, I have several seedlings under way. The Bluebells were an experiment, planted as seeds in the Autumn last year. The Foxgloves and Hollyhocks were from a Christmas cottage garden seed gift set from 2023. The Lupins are from seeds gathered from the railway Lupin. They are all on the dining room window sill at present, as the workshop is far too cold to start seeds. It isn't connected to the central heating and the electric wall heaters are very hungry 2Kw units and are too expensive to leave running. Once the Spring gets closer, the sun shines in most of the day and it generally doesn't need heating.



Today, I just finished as much of the bedroom as I can do for now. All painted, skirting boards on and now waiting for the company to fit the new wardrobes on the 5th of March. After that, there's a couple of small bits of skirting and coving to add up to the new wardrobes, then a new carpet down.

While the bedroom radiator was off the wall, I also needed to remove the wet room radiator, to replace the electric element which failed some time ago. While the radiator is connected to the central heating, that doesn't get used much in the Summer, so I've fitted a Wi-Fi operated element so we can dry the towels without using the central heating.

The dressing room has had it's new light and mirror fitted and it just waiting for the fitted dresser to be installed. That will hide the pipework, then the remaining skirting can be fitted in there. I have a new light for the bedroom, but will leave that off until the fitters have finished waving wardrobes around the room. It's all so close to being complete.

 

I moved the trailcam further down the wood a few days ago, to get some different views. The fox seems very curious about the bird table. It's not that high above him and he could put his front paws on the sloping tree trunk to gain a little height, but never does.

I suspect that Basil is also responsible for the large number of pheasant feathers, found in the veggie planter yesterday. There was no body lying around, so he either got the full pheasant, or the pheasant ran away naked!



In a change from decorating and gardening, I also got all three military vehicles running for the first time this year. The last time they were out was Remembrance weekend. They were all turned over on the hand crank first and then the starter motors, to get some oil circulating around the engine, before attempting starting.

With them sitting for three months, I wanted to make sure there was oil splashed around first. They were all run up to operating temperature for 15 minutes before shutting down. A few minor things to look at before the season gets going, but overall, they performed fine after their Winter sleep. The roads are still covered with too much road salt to think about a drive yet.

 

22nd February 2025

Garden life on the two cameras varies between busy and almost nothing! I haven't seen any pattern to the activity. I've taken a number of stills from video over the last week and put them together. Quite a lot of crows in the area, one or two magpies and we seem to have a pair of pigeons that are very friendly! Someone locally has this black and white cat, but it doesn't visit that often.



For the first time this year, Lynne and I did some work in the garden. Lynne went around tidying dead stuff that never got trimmed back at the end of last year. While she was doing that, I dug up the Snowdrops that would be in the way of the lawn edging. The bird table camera caught me with a tray full of Snowdrops to be divided and replanted in the woodland.

 

The bird table camera is a Go-pro type camera, but with a 30fps frame rate, birds flying in or out are blurred. Of the smaller birds that have visited, I've spotted a robin, bluetit and finch.



There were several clumps of Snowdrops that were dug out. I think around six large groups, mostly around the outside of the wood, near the lawn, but also a couple up by the house. They were divided into smaller groups purely by the way they naturally separated, rather than any set number.

Those in the picture below are planted at the top end of the woodland, in the open area around the pine tree. With both the original Snowdrop and Bluebell bulbs having broken the surface, I was able to plant the moved Snowdrops into gaps around those planted last Autumn.

 

It's taken the pigeons over two weeks to realise that there was seed on the table. Until recently, they have just been picking up seed from the ground, spilled from the table.



We didn't get out in the garden until around 3:30 due to other stuff going on, but the lighter evenings are starting to make a difference. This view is from the pine tree opening, looking down the woodland towards the bird table, which is just below the sun.

 

This morning, I moved the bird table camera to another branch, giving a view across the table, rather than down. It's a bit harder to reach into the tree to remove it, but it gives a better view. Unlike the Campark Trailcam, I can't connect to the Go-pro via wi-fi, so it needs to be removed and plugged into a computer.



These snowdrops are between the conifer and bird table tree, heading further down the wood. You can see the 1 inch shoots of the bulbs planted last year, just in front.

 

It's good to see everything coming to life isn't it?

 

For the first time since the start of the month, there was no activity on the trailcam overnight. I was surprised, as the fox has been a regular visitor. However, during the day, the bird table was pretty busy.



This view is from the centre entrance path, just to the left of the bird table tree. The last of the moved Snowdrops were planted here. It's still going to take some time for the area to fill out and both the Snowdrops and Bluebells to spread, but it's a start. I may well buy more of each to plant in the Autumn.



Back at the pine tree opening, this animated gif shows the before and after in this area. Looking through the gaps in the branches, you can see down to the Snowdrops shown above.

 

Have you thought about inter planting the bulbs with Aconites or Anemone Blanda for a little more colour?