Monday 7 May 2012

Hey Ho, the Wind and the Rain



The past few weeks have been wet, windy and often cold. Even so, spring is here and the fields, garden and Forest are flush with new foliage in so many shades of green. The scent of blossom and new grass is everywhere. Underfoot there are puddles and wet mud.


A corner of our little wildlife pond, which sometimes overflows with runoff from the field.  The floating leaves of water forget-me-nots are a good place for newts to lay their eggs. There are several adult Common Newts in residence again.


One of the few cuckoo flowers around the pond.


Wet, itchy ponies during a gap between showers.



A Skunk Cabbage in flower. They do smell of skunk and the flies love them!



One stormy night, the old wooden pergola sighed its last and crashed down. bringing most of two Pauls Himalayan Musk climbing roses with it. It will need replacing, so we will let the roses flower and then have a serious prune before another pergola can be built.







The roses have tipped right over to one side.




On a rainy afternoon, the Ginger Man retired to the back of the airing cupboard.....




Forest Cat sat around looking beautiful.......




....while Lucy curled up in a tight ball, to sleep until it was time to eat or play once again.



10 comments:

Kath said...

your cats are just gorgeous!

Down by the sea said...

The cats have the right idea! Thank you for sharing the sights of May without getting our feet wet too!
Sarah x

kirstallcreatures said...

I like the photo of the puddle and reflections, lovely.
Three very appropriate feline responses to a rainy afternoon!

WOL said...

Sad about the pergola, but at least you didn't lose the roses. Damp itchy ponies! We are having thunder showers here. I hope we get some rain out of it.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thank you for that photo and name of skunk cabbage - I have been trying to think of it for days. Super coincidence that I should read it on your blog. Isn't amazing how every thing makes its progress regardless of whether it is warm or cold, wet or dry.

Bovey Belle said...

You had more rain than we had here in Wales (for a change!) Good idea to leave the pergola repairs and PHM pruning until it has flowered, and then it always puts forth lots of new growth anyway, so it should soon be back to its usual exuberant self.

Give the itchy wet ponies a big hug from me, and tell your pussums that they must leave the Swallows be! I have shut Maggie's stable door and put a piece of board over the open bit of the barn door so no cats can reach our barn-nesting swallows.

Rowan said...

It really does look wet where you are, you've had much more rain than we have I think. Love the photo of Ginger Man, he looks very cosy tucked up in there:)

Pam said...

We didn't have much rain until today, when we did. Would you like it back? You're welcome.

Em Parkinson said...

It looks even worse than here on the moors!At least here it runs away down the hills rather than sitting in huge puddles. So sorry to hear about the roses; I'm losing Solomon's Seal to sawflies but at least they'll grow back next year. Lovely photos.

Morning's Minion said...

What a prickly job that will be to sort out those roses!
The cats appear to have made themselves comfortable to wait out the nasty weather--they are all pretty, but I can almost 'feel' Lucy's stripy fur under my hand.