Flighty’s plot

and

Frog is going to be so surprised if he wakes up and finds it like this!

Thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for these images.

are both much better today I’m glad to say!

It’s sunny and warm so I went to the plot. My neighbour Brian confirmed that it was too wet to really do anything so I just topped up the peanuts in the bird feeder, the mixed seeds having hardly been touched.

The pond is now well hidden by grasses , and although I looked there was so sign of the taddlers just an insect water skimming.

There are lots of buds on both the Pretty Lady

and Valentine Heart roses.

Bees were buzzing round the comfrey which is now in full flower, some ladybirds scurrying about and a blue tit flitted by.

Not surprisingly I’ve really enjoyed watching Springwatch this week! It’s not on tomorrow but it’ll be worth watching Gardeners’ World on BBC2 at 8.00pm as Simon King will be at Berryfields to assess the garden’s wildlife credentials. Springwatch is back from Monday onwards on BBC2 at 8.00pm.

It’s National Wildlife Week from this Saturday to 21 June, and yes these dates are correct!

Have a good weekend!

This blog award Daffy kindly gave me several weeks back, and is very much appreciated.

I’m actually having one of those days today where I think that I’d have been better off staying in bed. It’s another damp, dull day so I’ve stayed home to mooch and sofa fly yet again.

I wasn’t able to access my emails for most of the morning, several phone calls were spent either listening to dinky music or the message Your phone call is important to us. If so then why did I spend nearly twenty minutes hanging on before giving up again.

There are other things I could, indeed should, be doing but in this frame of mind I simply can’t be bothered so I’ll spend the rest of the day doing nothing much.

It’s not often I feel like this and rest assured it won’t last long. Back in November 2005 when I was blogging as FlightBuff and felt like this Featheredenergy did an entry For Flighty. I can’t link to it as it’s long been deleted but it went like this.

I need to cheer Flighty up. It has to be something nice, funny and tasteful. Something he can keep and when he feels a little gloomy he can have a quick look and hopefully feel better. It has to make him smile. There is nothing nicer than having something nice and every time you look at it you feel the corners of your lips turning (in the up direction).

A smile will help you through your day.

A smile will help to pave the way.

Through thick and thin, through good and bad.

Through funny and touching, through happy and sad.

If I can help bring a smile to your face,

It’s as rewarding to me as winning a race !

My comment to this entry read Thank you so much for this Feathers. I will indeed remember it, and come back when I’m a little down and sad. By the time I finish reading it there will be a smile on my face, as indeed there is now. Lots of hugs just for you, and a sweetie to go with them.

For anyone reading this who doesn’t know, or hasn’t guessed, who Featheredenergy is then I’m sure that you won’t be surprised when I tell you that it’s Daffy!

[Please note that there's a possibility that my usual Thursday entry won't be posted tomorrow. If not then it will appear on Friday (evening) instead.]

is one year old today, and I’m sitting here looking out the window just as I did then at the same weather!

The plot has given me much pleasure since Week 1 back at the end of last June.

The past couple of weeks I’ve not been, or done much, there for one reason or another and it looks like it’ll be Thursday before I next do any further plotting!

I was there briefly yesterday morning, soon after 6.00am, and was delighted to see one of the lilies in flower

a few splashes of colour in the jungle and that there were bees on the aquilegia

Plot 124 certainly looks very different now to when I saw it for the first time!

My thanks to everyone who stops by to read this blog, and especially to those of you who comment!

After last weeks wanderings and wonderings Frog has returned to the pond.

and

I think that Frog has discovered that there are a few taddlers in there!

Thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for these images.

Next Sunday’s Wild China, on BBC2 at 9.15pm, is 3/6. Tibet. I’m sure that it will be every bit as enjoyable to watch as the first two programmes have been. That’s especially so as one of the rare animals that will be featured is my favourite cat, the snow leopard.

Springwatch starts on Monday BBC2 at 8.00pm, and continues throughout the week. It goes without saying that it is among my favourite wildlife TV programmes. Don’t forget the webcams on the website, which include the infamous Heligan Gardens barn owls!

On the plot Monday afternoon I was pleased to see a blue tit on the peanut feeder little more than arm’s length away. I can identify these favourite birds but I’m not so good with bird sounds! That being so I will make a point of listening to A Guide to Woodland Birds on BBC Radio 4 Sunday at 2.45pm.

Readers of this blog will know that James Stewart is my favourite film star. He was born 100 years ago on the 20th May, and is number 3 in the American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Film Legends. Barry Norman wrote in the Radio Times that he was probably the most beloved star in cinema history.

I’m off for a cup of tea and a couple of plain digestive biscuits which you all know are another of my favourites!

Have a good weekend!

I bought Spitfire Women of World War II by Giles Whittell as a present for myself last December and finally read it a couple of months back.

It tells the story of the female pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) which ferried thousands of aircraft throughout the UK during WWII.

Earlier this year the survivors were honoured with a long overdue special badge, and very recently Diana Barnato Walker sadly died.

I found this book to be a thoroughly engrossing read and have no hesitation in recommending it. [My friend Jim spotted that one photo is captioned as an Avro Anson but is clearly an Airspeed Oxford!]

Bomber Boys Fighting Back 1940-1945 by Patrick Bishop is a compelling book about the air crews of Bomber Command throughout WWII.

Many of the facts and figures quoted really do make sobering reading. It’s little wonder that two members of my family who were Bomber Boys said virtually nothing of their experiences.

As well as the crews stories it tells that of Sir Arthur Harris , who headed Bomber Command throughout this period.

This was a more weighty book to read but again I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone interested in this period.

and

So now we know what Frog wants! I wonder what the bird will do to help him!

Thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for these images.

[Did you notice that this week it's Frog Wanderings (as was last weeks) and Wonderings, however it's back to Ponderings next week!]

Wild China continues on BBC2 Sunday at 8.00pm with 2/6. Shangri-La. It shows the mountain forests and remote valleys of Yunnan Province where elusive red pandas and wild elephants live. If you missed the first programme last week, which really was excellent viewing, then you can catch up with it on BBC2 Saturday at 7.00pm.

Also on Sunday is series three of the entertaining Meerkat Manor with 1/13. On Dangerous Ground and 2/13. The Mission showing on BBC2 Sunday at 7.10pm. Note that this series was first shown on Animal Planet.

Last week I overlooked that a new series of The Trees That Made Britain, with Kew Gardens intrepid duo Tony Kirkham and Jon Hammerton, was being shown. The second programme is on BBC2 tomorrow at 7.30pm.

I notice that the Radio Times for the week after next will have an eight-page special on Springwatch and that the programme starts Monday 26th May on BBC2 at 8.00pm. This year it will based in Norfolk, not Devon, whilst Simon King is in Strathspey which is home to ospreys, pine martens and wildcats.

Lastly don’t forget that it’s National Be Nice to Nettles Week!

Have a good weekend!

Unusually for me I’ve been sneezing, had a runny nose and a sore throat for a day or two. What with that and the fact that I don’t like it too warm, say over 25C, I went to the plot early this morning and did an easy few hours.

I sowed some more flower seeds, continued weeding and took plenty of breaks for a tin mug of tap water whilst trying out my new log seat which Joe gave me, along with a fewer smaller ones for the log pile.

I’ve let the area at the top right-hand (north-east) corner of the plot get rather overrun with grass. However there are plenty of poppies there as well as some knapweed, meadow cranesbill and other wild flowers. I’m going to leave it pretty much alone until the autumn when I’ll dig it over properly then probably sow a packet of perennial plants mixture.

Some of the lettuce and beetroot that I sowed have appeared, there are some well hidden flowers on the rosemary and two of the roses have the beginnings of flower buds on them. A blue tit put in a fleeting appearance at the peanut feeder and there were ladybirds everywhere.

I hope to be there Tuesday, Thursday and Friday next week when apart from taking it easy I’ll be making good use of the log seat!