Practice week

It is practice week - where is the rain?

30 May to 3 June 2016

Monday afternoon.  After I finished compiling the previous post we went for a late afternoon walk along the roads at the top of the glen.  Before we left I took a few photos in the garden.  A couple of white butterflies had been flying around vigorously for most of the afternoon and I finally got a good look at one.  It was a female green veined white.  Then she settled on the hawthorn above my head  but she had her wings folded.

I kept the camera focussed on her until she spread her wings but as I pressed the shutter she took off and I ended up with a blurred shot of about three-quarters of a butterfly in flight.  Not my best butterfly photos but the hawthorn flowers are lovely.

Then I saw something small, possibly a moth, flying by my feet.  It landed with its wings folded up - obviously a butterfly - but I couldn’t see it clearly.  Then it opened its wings for a brief moment and I glimpsed the unmistakeable brown and blue colours of a common blue female before it flew off.

Our outing was later than we planned because the test match against Sri Lanka lasted longer than we expected.  But five o’clock is a very pleasant time for a walk on a hot day at the end of May.  The sun was low and the shadows long.  The birds  were singing enthusiastically and some of the residents of the glen were sitting in their gardens enjoying the last bit of the “stunning day”.

When we approached the end of the road up the glen we saw a hooded crow fluttering around on the bridge over the river to Glen  Auldyn Lodge.  It kept flying up and trying to perch on the railings but they were too smooth and too thick for it to grip.  It tried a couple of times but kept falling back onto the bridge.  It appeared to be a fledgling - possibly a little too young to have left the nest because it wasn’t capable of flying more than a few feet.

After a while it decided that walking was a better option.  It strolled across to a gap in the hedge and disappeared into the shrubbery near the gate.

There was a lot of cow parsley flowering at the edge of the roads this week.  The flowers are not unlike my pignuts but the Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) which is also known as wild chervil or Queen Anne’s Lace is a  much taller plant.  

There was a particularly fine patch at the side of the Fern Glen road.  We used to have some growing in the garden, under the big beech tree near the house, but I think it got crowded out by the bluebells and Welsh poppies.

I don’t usually photograph plants in other people’s gardens, but near the top of the Fern Glen Road I couldn’t resist taking a photo of this beautiful wisteria growing up the wall of a friend’s house.  

It is probably a superior variety to ours and is flowering much earlier.  Our wisteria seems to be confused by the cold spring and is putting too much energy into producing a vast number of leaf shoots.  It has flower buds too but they are just starting to open.

When we got home I took a few photos of the Granny’s bonnets which have seeded themselves at the bottom of the low stone wall outside our gate.

Tuesday was hot again.  The TV weather forecast had mentioned the possibility of showers on the Isle of Man but there wasn’t a cloud to be seen.  We did the shopping and then I sat in the sun, trimming the grass on the edge of the back lawn.

After lunch we walked in Skyhill plantation because it is shadier than Brookdale.  We followed the route of the mountain bike race that we walked two weeks ago - but reversed the direction of the loop in the northern section of the plantation.

The sea was the deepest blue imaginable and Ramsey looked splendid.  Perhaps distance lends enchantment to the view . . . but I cannot think of a better place to live than near Ramsey.

I missed getting a photo of a small hawk flying past the edge of the wooded area.  It looked brown seen from above and could have been a female sparrowhawk.  There was no white tail band so it wasn’t a hen harrier.

Further on we passed a sun spot where there was a gap in the trees and saw two speckled wood butterflies doing their spiral dance cum fight . . . contesting ownership of the area.  They were joined by a third  butterfly which apparently won the contest on account of its superior size.  It landed on a bramble leaf in the coveted territory - the first red admiral that I have seen this year - and the first time I have seen a different butterfly interacting with the speckled woods.

Wednesday morning brought a change in the weather - overcast skies mean midge weather. It was a good morning for doing a bit of tidying and cleaning inside the house and preparing the spare room for our son’s visit.

I went out briefly onto the front patio to take a photo of the poppies.  They have been enjoying the last few warm sunny days.

Apart from this enormous crane-fly which came into the dining room, I have only been watching the wildlife through the window.  I looked this chap up and he is a Tipula maxima - “one of the largest crane-flies”.  I can believe that - his body was about an inch long.

There wasn’t anything very exciting outside - apart from two magpies, which we often see on walks but seldom see in the garden.  There were just the usual birds and an occasional white butterfly.

By the way, I referred to the crane-fly as he partly because he was a male and partly because I have decided that I prefer the language rules regarding gender neutral pronouns as explained by a commenter on the Guardian website:

"He" is the gender neutral pronoun, it has simply fallen out of usage in that way in the latter half of the 20th century because people (incorrectly) assume that it applies only to males. The same pronoun is also used to indicate a male and "she" is used to indicate female in the same way as the race "man" refers to both men and women, but "man" also refers to the male gender and woman, the female. The use of "they" as a singular is now preferred and seen as more politically correct term, but linguistically its usage in this manner is suspect to say the least.”  

To be politically correct should I have referred to Number 2 Ratty as “they” in the previous post?  I think not.  If I wrote “they climbs up the bird feeding station pole” it sounds too ungrammatical and “they climb,etc.” sounds too plural and creates a vision of a stream of Ratties climbing the pole.  I shall stick to “he” and risk the wrath of the libbers and social justice warriors. Before you start muttering “Bigot!” - let me explain that I am not as much of an old right wing curmudgeon as I sound.  I am all in favour of tolerance and politeness to all mankind  - but I don’t see why I should be bullied for using a word that someone else happens to dislike.

In the afternoon we walked up to the Brookdale top gate.  It was Goldilocks weather - too hot going up, too cold in the wind at the top (when we paused to watch the motorbikes racing past) and just right walking back downhill.  The Scottish mountains were hovering bluely above the sea haze.

As we walked down we heard the ominous combination of a noisy helicopter nearby and lack of road traffic noise.  We read later that there had been accident at Guthries and “The rider involved has been taken to hospital with potentially serious injuries”.  

Everything in the garden was peaceful.  The weigela was looking good.

And the afternoon sun was shining on the tiny pink London Pride flowers and the poppies near the front steps.

Thursday morning was hot and sunny again.  I wondered whether I should put the sprinkler on the driest parts of the back lawn in the afternoon.  I dither because I don’t like wasting water but at the same time I don’t like looking at dead patches in the lawn. It is silly to brood over trivia when other people have far worse problems to contend with.

I was working in the house again and only went outside a few times - once, to bring the milk in and twice to chase cats out of the garden - but I did see something interesting outside the kitchen window.  A magpie was under the bird feeder, poking around in the niger seed where I scattered the hedgehog pellets.  Perhaps La Gazza Ladra - the thieving magpie - has been taking the discarded hedgehog food.  A pair have been seen in the garden once or twice lately.

It is hayfever season again and Tim is suffering.  I read that grass pollen is the usual suspect at this time of year.  We have decided to stay indoors this afternoon stock up on eye spray, etc. tomorrow morning.

Friday.  The last shopping trip before the races start tomorrow morning and sad news.  The fish shop which used to be open six days a week, but has only been opening on Friday mornings during the last year is to be sold and there will be no source of fresh fish in the north of the Island.  Supermarket fish doesn’t count as it isn’t really fresh.  The local fishing industry has almost been destroyed by overfishing.  I thought in retrospect that I should have said to the Fish Lady “So long and thanks for all the fish” but then I thought not . . . she may not be a Douglas Adams fan.  

We walked in the late afternoon but kept to the roads hoping (probably in vain)  that the pollen wouldn’t be so bad there - but it must drift around everywhere in the wind.

The highlight of the outing was walking under this lovely laburnum that overhangs the road at Milntown..