Sunday, 6th September, 2015
The first week of autumn started beautifully and ended just as beautifully. On Monday just after the official sunrise time the sky above the northern horizon had a peachy pink glow . . .
. . . and Saturday was one of those sparkling blue sky days when the air is so clear that we can see the distant blue hills surrounding the North Irish Sea in sharp relief if we are out and about - but in the glen we just enjoy the sky.
This week passed in a blur of alternating between trimming ferns and removing brambles and other unwanted vegetation from the ivy covered bank at the top of the garden and trimming the hedge down by the road. The road work needed to be finished during the motorbike races while there was no traffic racing up and down our narrow road. I achieved at least this one minor goal.
The “short walk every day” resolution wasn’t so successful. It only lasted two days. The first walk was a repeat of our last walk to the top of the Skyhill track on the west side of the glen. We found a solitary speckled wood sunning itself on a bracken frond.
I enjoyed watching the clouds racing by - highlighting various parts of the upper glen as they passed.
On Tuesday we started the new month with a more ambitious route and tackled the Brookdale walk on the east side of the glen. I had been admiring the heather on the lower slopes of North Barrule from a distance - every time we drove out to the tip with another load of garden refuse - but I wasn’t sure whether we were fit enough to walk all the way up to the top gate of the plantation to see the heather close-up.
As we walked towards the river we heard some wood pigeons cooing above us. I looked up and thought I could see two perched on the very top of a couple of conifers high up in the plantation behind the houses. No wonder their voices carry so well over the tops of the trees. I couldn’t see them well enough to be sure because they just looked like black blobs against the bright sky but the camera has better eyesight than me.
As we walked up the track through Brookdale I picked a few blackberries. They were almost ripe but should be sweeter next week. There were one or two foxgloves which were still flowering. The ones in the garden have gone to seed already and I have cut most of them down or pulled them out. We passed three flowers which I try to keep out of the garden even though they are pretty. The first was rosebay willowherb which spreads too aggressively and forms dense patches.
The next was the notorious ragwort. The flowers would brighten any garden but the plants are toxic to livestock and the seeds are dispersed by the wind.
And finally, and probably less of a problem, selfheal. The little mauve flowers are attractive but it spreads forming dense patches in the lawn and inhibiting the grass. I am trying to eradicate it and it slows down my mowing because I keep stopping the mower to pull out any remaining bits when I see the tell tale flowers starting to open.
We kept up a slow but steady pace and finally reached the top gate. The heather was lovely. There seemed to be more of the Scottish heather (calluna vulgaris) and less of the brighter bell heather (Erica cinerea) than I remember seeing on previous occasions.
On the way down I stopped occasionally to take photos of glimpses of the northern plain framed by the trees. This is a distant view of the tip (or the Balladoole civic amenity site to give it its posh name) with the houses at Dog Mills and the clay cliffs at Shellag Point behind.
The races ended on Friday. We didn’t watch the bikes but Tim listened to the commentary on the radio. It was the usual mix of excitement and frustration - brave riders and hours of delays. The weather was reasonably kind on race days but sometimes just a short shower on one part of the track is enough for racing to be put off for hour after hour. Usually the delays are caused by rain, fog, high winds or an accident on the roads just before they close - but this year there was a new excuse, a problem with the communication system. But eventually everything got sorted and the program was completed although one or two races were shortened.
On Saturday morning I took some photos to record possible future projects and tasks in the garden. I was trying to work out a way of persuading the Cecile Brunner climbing rose, which has outgrown its trellis, to climb up into the hawthorn which is growing on the bank.
When I turned round I saw that I had a “supervisor” sitting on the fence and taking a keen interest in the proceedings.
On Saturday afternoon I should have been compiling this post but after mowing the grass I went to sleep sitting at the computer - so for a second week I put off the writing until Sunday. I did wake up long enough to take a couple of photos of the garden. First I thought that I should keep a record of the Japanese anemones which have put on such a good display this year.
And then I took a photo of my newly mown grass and the wildflower bed (weed patch?) under the beech tree.
I thought that would be the last photo for the blog but this afternoon I saw my first large white butterfly of the season!
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