Shooting our garden birds

Well the snow sort of arrived as you will know if you visit Martyn's weather blog but considering what has happened in other parts of the country I'm a bit embarrassed to say it has snowed here. We may not have had much snow but  it has been bitterly cold so I have been amusing myself shooting our garden birds.

Bet that caught your attention but if you know me at all you will know that the only thing I would use to shoot anything is my camera.

Martyn has bought me a new camera (I didn't even have to wait 'til Santa came!) so I have been 'exploring it's capabilities' which is just a pretentious way of saying I've been playing with it.

Now it's one thing taking photos of gardens and flowers and vegetables as each has enough consideration of the photographer to keep still but birds are another thing altogether. They move and in some cases pretty quickly and they don't give an amateur photographer like me time to compose and focus so I must admit to relying on autofocus and burst shooting! I also have to admit to a bit of tweaking and cropping using Photoshop. Much photographic jargon is a mystery to me but if any 'real' photographers out there would like to give me a simple online course then I'd happily take them up on it.

Anyway although I haven't got to grips with the camera yet I thought that I'd share some of my photos - they may not be quite in focus but some are quite cute. The photos were taken from our window and I had to try and dodge the leading on the glass. Also I guess the windows could have been a bit cleaner so cut me a bit of slack!

Maybe when I set up on a tripod the focus will improve and I've also ordered one of those remote thingies to plug into my camera so I can stand away from the window and not scare the birds away.

I must have taken several hundred shots, (literally), to get these few that I dare share. Many shots were of where the bird had been just a second before the photo was taken! Anyway one thing for sure is that if this weather keeps up I'll have plenty of time to practise!

Soggy, Muddy and Miserable!

Last weekend we actually managed to pay a visit to the plot where everything looked gloomy and soggy. There are more photos taken at the plot in an album here

You can see from the photo below of the winter onions that the soil is really muddy.

Despite the mud we managed to dig up some parnsips ...

some carrots and beetroot  from beneath the straw protection ...

and also took home some red and green cabbage which had survived the snow in spite of losing some of their outer leaves. We really enjoy the red cabbage braised.

The thaw has revealed the sorry state of what were my beautiful cyclamen - I'm really upset to see them reduced to this. Of course we all know who's fault this was!

As ever the pansies are made of sterner stuff:

To make up a little for my disappointment over the tub of cyclamen I treated myself to a pot plant (I told Martyn that I had bought it for him so ssh) - at least I know the snow shouldn't ruin that!

Now bracing ourselves for a return to the freezing conditions that are forecast - at least we now have our heating in!

First trawl of the seed catalogues!

What with the weather keeping us indoors where we have had to keep out of the way of heating engineers and try to keep warm despite most of our heating being out of commission, this week seemed an ideal time to browse the seed catalogues.

I've made a start by choosing flower and herb seeds. We grow cut flowers on the plot and also like to have flowers growing amongst our fruit bushes. We spend a lot of our time on the allotment and the flowers brighten the place up. I've added links just in case you want to have a peep at what the flowers SHOULD look like!

This photo is alongside the paved area outside the shed where we sit for a coffee break and shows what it looked like last year. I am ordering more nemesia - Carnival Mixed which provided a great display and another variety of rudbeckia - Marmalade. I'm hoping the poppies will have seeded themselves. The sunflowers provide a bit of privacy and may also seed themselves but just in case I am ordering a packet of Prado yellow. The birds, bees and other insects wouldn't forgive me if I didn't have any sunflowers.

Flowers amongst the fruit also bring in the bees and other pollinators although it has to be said most of the fruit bushes bloom before the flowers. We still have some marigold seeds - Disco and Naughty Marietta so I am ordering some Tagetes - Starfire for a change to mix amongst them. Instead of annual chrysanthemum I am ordering zinnia - Oklahoma which should also provide cut flowers. Again the cosmos should self seed but I'm ordering some cosmos - Sensation just in case.

To create a boundary along the edge of our plot we have an ornamental border with shrubs roses, perennails etc. We already have some foxgloves -Foxy  and  Excelsior Hybrids growing on to be planted in this border in spring (the bees love them)  and I have also ordered some larkspur - Giant Imperial mixed and Gazania - Splendens Mixed to add to the mix. One lot of seeds that I know will self seed very freely here are the poached egg plants so I won't need to buy any more of those seeds - they are the type of seeds that you only buy once!

Regular visitors will already know that we grow dahlias on the plot too but we have ended up with quite a lot of similar colours and I've decided to try growing some more from seed rather than tubers so I am ordering a variety called Giant Hybrids.

We usually grow sweet peas for cutting and have been pleased with the performance of the varieties we have grown in the past - Perfume Delight and Spencer Waved and so will be growing them again next year. The mixed varieties are much cheaper and ideal if - like me - all you want is to cut the flowers for a vase. I do want the flowers to smell like sweet peas though so these are chosen for their perfume and fairly long stems.

Last year we grew outdoors cucumbers up the other side of the cane arch.

I've also decided to try the short sweet peas so am ordering Snoopea just for interest.

Some of the plants grown will be planted in the garden but I am also ordering some seeds specially for the garden.

Under the bird bath is an ideal position for plants the love damp conditions. Last year I planted some mimulus and they did really well so this year I am ordering more seeds. The variety was Mystic which had a good mix of colours and quite large flowers. Again they may self seed but I don't want to risk it.

I tried nemesia in tubs last year but these didn't do as well as the ones planted on the plot in the ground so this year I'm going to try some osteospernum which I know you can buy as mature plants but I'm going to try growing some  Giant Mixed from seed. I'm also going to try some Bellis - Pomponette but mainly for my sister as she likes them.

I've mentioned that I like cyclamen and we have loads of hardy cyclamen - Neopolitanum which have self seeded everwhere including gaps in paving. They cross pollinated from just one white and one pink plant and we now have all sorts of shades of white and pink. There is another hardy cyclamen called coum which flowers at a different time so I'm going to have a go at growing some from seed. The Neopolitanum grow fairly easily from collected seed so I just hope that the coum ones are as easy. I guess it depends on whether they grow better from freshly harvested seed as some plants such as primroses seem to. Just to be even more adventurous I'm going to have a go at growing some indoor cyclamen too. The variety Lazer claims to be the easiest to grow from seed so I'm ordering that variety - but how easy is easy and why do they feel the need to claim that it is the easiest to grow from seed - does it mean that it is just less difficult. If anyone has grown cyclamen from seed and has any tips I'd be really grateful.

Now just the herbs and vegetables to decide on!