Autumn 6

Two walks and some pruning.

Monday 12th October, 2015

It is Sunday already.  Grey and overcast but at least dry.  It hasn’t been a great week for photography.  That is a complaint that I will be repeating . . .  and repeating again, repeatedly until spring arrives.  The only photos that I have taken are the ubiquitous sunrises . . .

. . . and a short record of a walk in Brookdale plantation on Thursday morning.  I think I will wait until tomorrow to finish this post so that we can go for a walk in Ballaglass Glen in search of some more interesting photographs.  There may even be some autumn leaves because a few of the trees are already starting to change colour.

This past week has been devoted mainly to pruning buddleia and general clearing up.  For the past four or five years, I have been cutting the buddleia down to a couple of shoots on the new growth.  So it is gradually getting taller.  I think it has reached the limit at which it can be pruned without resorting to a ladder.  Next year I will do a radical prune with the electric saw and start from scratch again.  

Nearly all the wild angelica has been cut down to stop it spreading too much seed and I have started on the rather painful task of cutting fuchsia out of the holly hedge in the front garden.  The holly will never form a thick hedge as long as it is over-shadowed by the faster growing fuchsia.  I had to buy a new pair of light rachet secateurs.  The holly hedge killed the first pair.  The little pin which attached the blade to the rachet mechanism got metal fatigue, fell out, and disappeared.

I cut back most of the echinops a couple of weeks ago.  Although it is a member of the thistle family, and is much loved by pollinators, the seeds are ignored by our finches even though some websites recommend planting Globe thistle (Echinops ritro) to attract birds to the garden. Recently I noticed siskins feeding on the meadowsweet seedheads up on the wild flower bank so they are not against finding their own seeds even when niger seeds are available at the feeding station.  And I have seen goldfinches taking knapweed seed.  It was a mystery why they were boycotting the echinops.  I picked a few of the last husks which hadn’t fallen from the flower heads and examined them but couldn’t find any seed inside.  Maybe the answer is that my plants are not producing seed.  I shall have to investigate further.

There weren’t many unusual sightings during the week but I was delighted to see a dunnock yesterday.  I saw it twice (probably the same one), first perched on the wooden fence and then on the ground under the bird feeders.  They used to visit the garden every day but I have only seen one a couple of times this year.  The Silver Y moth (or one of its friends or relations) has been back but I didn’t get another photo.  The first time it returned it disappeared while I was fetching my camera, and the second time I saw it the light was too dim for a photo.  There have been indications of other visitors, seen and unseen.  I wasn’t very pleased about having to clear up messes from trespassing cats before mowing - but I was delighted to find some smaller and darker messes which could be evidence of a nocturnal visiting hedgehog.

The only bumblebees still working in the garden are the little common carders.  They seem to be able to survive cooler temperatures than the other varieties and are still quite vigorous.  According to The Wildlife Trusts website they can be seen feeding on flowers right through from early spring to November.  Their website also mentioned that the white tailed bumblees should be around until November - but the last ones I saw were a couple of disconsolate dew drenched males on October 3.  They were waiting hopefully for some warming sunshine after spending the night on the sedums in the back garden.

Friday’s walk in Brookdale turned into a photo session for the most attractive conifers in the plantation.  Tim told me that they are Noble firs - Abies procera.  I am sure he is right although they are not listed among the trees grown in the Island’s plantations.  The only closely related trees are the red firs - Abies magnifica.  After returning home I discovered that the best way to tell them apart is to examine the needles.  The Noble firs have a groove on the upper side of their needles.  It isn’t possible to be 100% certain just using photographic evidence but our firs do look rather groovy.

They also have lovely blue new foliage . . .

And huge cones which disintegrate before they fall.

The shape of the bracts made me think of stealth bombers.  But on second thoughts they may look more like simple paper aeroplanes.

After an overnight, or early morning, shower we had good weather for our drive down to Ballaglass this morning.  A lot of work has been done in the glen since our last visit.  There were no “footpath closed” signs and the fences, bridges and even the path had been repaired or replaced.

We headed for the ancient horse chestnuts in search of autumn colours but were disappointed.  Most of their leaves were still green . . .

. . . although there were a few patches of yellow and bronze.

We walked down the path to the river and crossed the bridge at the top of the glen.  The level of the water in the river was fairly low but it was very pretty and I kept stopping to take photos.

There were patches of blue sky overhead, framed with gold-tinted leaves.

The sweet chestnuts were shedding their leaves and their prickly pods.  We are too far north to get any worthwhile chestnuts, most of the nuts do not develop, but the trees keep trying.

Across the river the rocks had been worn into funnels and hollows by the movement of the water and the grinding effect of loose stones.

We crossed the new bridge and walked along the path in search of a sloping rock near a picnic spot.  The only flowers we had seen so far were fuchsias and montbretia, but we came across an unexpected clump of goldenrod.  It was past its best so I decided to focus on the water and just use the flowers for a blur of colour.

This is Chrissie’s rock.  She was our dearly loved golden Schipperke and whenever we stopped here she walked down this rock to drink from the river.  We got really worried when the rock was wet and slimy and the river was high as we had visions of her slipping into the water and being swept downstream but luckily it never happened.

We turned back downstream and I noticed these reflections on the water.  After looking at the photo, I wondered whether the first landscape impressionist artists got their inspiration from reflections on moving water.

Further downstream was the new bridge.

We walked back to the car along a new and vastly improved path - but I felt rather nostalgic for the old path.  It was less convenient with its muddy patches, wet rocks and mossy roots but it had more character.

On the way home we stopped on the road to Ballajora so that I could take a photo of Maughold village (on the left) and the lighthouse on the far side of Port Mooar.

Then I looked across the sea to the distant Cumbrian mountains with Sellafield on the coast - a study in blue.