Elsinore

Leaves fall across the entrance

To the burrow on the bank
The last wasps have left safely
They have summer to thank
Flying silently on empty days
The rattle of wings hushed
Nobility dissolves into autumn
They leave Elsinore ghosts
To feed quietly on late blooms
Timid lionesses powerless by need
And then to hide and sleep
Survive cold; preserve the seed
Ragged successors to noble houses
Flying upon an empty realm of dreams
Having known but a poor spring
This summer's crop of small queens

Sip

We are summers gifts
Wrapped within sunbeams
A brief fire in the dark
And then we are gone
And take one last sip
Before I leave
Before night sends its vanguard
To invade the days
And place the world to sleep

Bag End

 I have been making a little folly in the garden for the last month. It started off quite simply, but you know how these things develop when you have too much time on your hands. But it achieved its objective and adds a little interest to a rather dull bank. It is my take on the hobbit house 'Bag End' in Lord of the Rings with the rather limited range of materials on hand.

 

Though I am pleased with it, the crowning glory is really the Acer on the little hill on the roof. It is a simply stunning autumn colour at the moment. It was also the single most expensive thing of the whole project.

Before I started

 

 

Getting the front done

 

 

The finished folly

 

The Acer

Mini Lop Rabbit

Look what we found in the garden. Hopefully somebody will claim him or sadly I might just have to keep him. I made a little temporary hutch in the greenhouse and bought some food. There was some winter kale for planting out in there and the emphasis is now on 'was'.

Late August

Dragonfly

The joy to be fearsome dragonfly

Two years under fetid water lie
On summer day awake to air
Ascend a stalk with wind set fair
Split my case and curve outside
Never again to have to hide
I am a regal insect born to reign
Until at last summer shall wane
Weaving and flowing see me fly
This iridescence that hugs the sky
That I must be here now is plain
But why to be born in all this rain

It's not my fault for they just keep on coming

August 2015

Last

Two years was not lost

I am last to climb
From watery abode
To die and be reborn
Like spent armour
Cast off exuvia
Arise
Stretch out to full
In the welcoming air

I did say I wouldn't mention them again but they keep on coming. The count is now 32 verified Southern Hawker dragonflies this summer from my small pond.

Happy Dog

This is what a happy dog looks like

 

 

Dragons and Windows 10

Sunday 2^nd August 2015

 
Another three dragonflies came out of the pond today. In total that makes 29 this year. It's amazing to me. The total count must be over 30 as I bet I missed some yesterday when I didn't visit.

Windows 10 issue is fixed and is proving to be amazing. It's like my Windows phone and PC are seamlessly twinned together; amazing!

Friday 31st July 2015

Another four dragonflies came out of the pond today. In total that makes 26 this year. While this is interesting it is also a test as Windows 10 has just completed and my blog editor seems to have bits missing.

 

Dragons stll be here

Thursday 30^th July 2015

Another six dragonflies came out of the pond today. In total that makes 22 this year. (That I know of.) It is likely there are others as Southern Hawkers are so green they blend in the vegetation very easily. You have probably seen enough dragonflies from me so these will be the last this year. Unless a National Geographic quality shot gets taken.

 

 

Dragons, Rockets and Sky

Tuesday 28^th July 2015

Another four dragonflies came out of the pond today. In total that makes sixteen this year. It was a very cool, grey, rainy day so that puts paid to my theory that they only emerge in good weather and that they all emerge within a day or two of each other. If the weather doesn't improve soon they will wish they had stayed in the water.

 

The other highlight of the day was finding some orchids growing in the field next to the garden. This is the Common Spotted Orchid (so called because of the black patches on its leaves.) It is a small flower but on close-up is a perfectly formed and colourful flower. Common or not, I'll be glad of any orchids I can find around here.

 

 

 

Finally here is a picture of the sky today. Ah, the typical English summer. Black clouds are brewing on the horizon and a dreary drizzle permeates everything. Perfect, see you later; off to sunbathe. Well I am northern and it is almost 60 degrees F.

 

 

 

Enjoy the picture of Darwen Tower. You see where the inspiration for the NASA Apollo programme came from

 

 

 

 

Midges

Rain falls upon streaming grass

Watery teeth biting upon growth
And slipping between the shades
Vampires of yellowing grassland
Flying on moistures twilight breath
Fearing sun and garlic
Swim in shady oceans of darkness
And a thousand piercing mandibles
Attack abundance as reward
Humanity is their gift of summer
And they nibble upon our softness
With the tenderness of a tickle

Summer summary

Well it has not been the greatest summer so far from a hot and sunny perspective but the rain had certainly made things grow tall. The Lovage and Gunnera is absolutely massive this year. I stood in the photo of the Lovage and Gunnera to scale it and I am just over 6 foot tall. The trees are growing so fast but already the leaves are limmed in that yellow cast that means summer is passing and the pergola I made in the winter is slowly being covered in clematis.

 

Rabbits have made a big comeback this year and are trying to eat every flower and plant. If the dog damaging the William Shakespeare rose wasn't enough the rabbits have now completed the job and decimated him. Shakespeare will not bloom here this year. 'So a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet and be just as tasty apparently.'

 

The lack of bees and wasps this year is disturbing. Even in previous bad years they have not been so appreciably absent. So to sum up this summer; lots of rabbits and rain and growth, but no bees, butterflies or bathing.

Around the lake are young ducklings and a family  of Cormorants (I always think of the seaside when I see them.) If you look at the picture there are Gulls and Cormorants so you could be forgiven for thinking that it was taken on the coast and not 30 miles inland.

 

The garden week

I've been counting dragonflies and frogs this week. I noted eight dragonflies over three days and all of them were southern hawkers. They have emerged almost one month later this year and it is still a wonder to me how they synchronise the event.

The frogs I have seen have all been immature adults of about two thirds of normal size. Don’t know what has happened to all the adults but judging by the lack of frogspawn this year something pretty calamitous. Let's hope there are more breeding pairs next year.

There is something magical about dragonflies. In part it is the mythical name but also its transformation from an initial aquatic state to that of air.  It is a natural form of the mythical 'alchemy' where something base is made to become precious. It is one of the most visible of the summer insect emergences and as it happens around water it is relatively easy to locate them and it lasts for many hours. I have never seen a butterfly emerge from its pupal case; have you, and where would you even look to find one? Nature is a force that captures innocence or rekindles it; even if that innocence is the birth of the most fearsome insect predator flying the July skies.

 

Naked

Terror transfers from water to air

To birth upon the sunlight
Monstrous nymphs climb bulrush
Unfolds, reborn, remade, redesigned
Wings stiffen and fill;
    Like collagen plumped lips
Jewelled chitinous covering deepens;
   Into organic enamelled art nouveau
You were late to wake this year
Metamorphosis is served cold
But no less the magnificent for it