Big Garden Birdwatch Thrill

This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. It's 30 years old this year. The idea (for those of you who don't know) is that you take one hour out of the weekend and watch the birds - in your garden/park/at a bird centre/wherever there are birds. You count up how many of each species you see at one time (eg 2 sparrows, which fly away, and then 3 sparrows = 3 sparrows not 5) and then enter the information on the RSPB's website.

I did it last year with Pip, and when I printed out the counting sheet this year he recognised it and was very excited to do it again. So after lunch we went up to his room, which overlooks the back garden (he traded rooms with Spike, because Pip is getting to need his own space, and Spike was thrilled to get to move into the bigger room with all the toys, and to share a bunk-bed with Dude. And Dude got to move to the top bunk - so everyone felt like they had moved up a rung!).

Anyway, there we were, watching birds eating sunflower seeds, peanuts and fatballs hanging from the tree in the back garden... An hour is a fairly long time for a 7 yr old, but he did really well. He had the tally sheet, and we watched the birds' antics, tried to count the ever-moving flocks of sparrows and identify what we saw.

Spike came in to assist... I picked him up and took him to find his daddy since I couldn't possibly change his stinky bum - I was busy birdwatching! When suddenly there came a cry from Pip: Mum, what's THAT?! So I dumped Spike and came running... there was a big bird in our garden, one we had never seen before.

'It's really mean, Mum. It stomped on a bird!'

What??

'Yeah, there's a bird under it.'

What??

Sure enough there was a little bird's head moving under the big bird's feet.... I ran to get the camera, cursing that I hadn't thought to have it up there with us. I got it and aimed it at the bird, just getting into focus, when it took off. Aaargh!

We had our birdspotter's book with us, so quickly identified the 'mean bird' as a female sparrowhawk! Pip said it actually snatched a sparrow out of the tree before landing in the garden with it.

I was astounded. I had never seen a sparrowhawk before, let alone one catching a bird, and there he was, at age 7, seeing wonders of nature I had never seen in all my (many) years. Wow. I was so impressed with him, and he is now a confirmed birdwatcher. Hooray!!!

As we didn't get to take a picture of our sparrowhawk here is one courtesy of the RSPB. I hope they don't mind! We do pay our subscription fees...

Funny Boy

Little Spike is really growing up. He is in the transition between baby and little boy, verging more on the little boy all the time. He had his hair cut again a couple of weeks ago and that really made him look grown up, and his speech is so funny these days. Here is a sample of things he says to us:

C'mon Noodle, it's breakfast time!

Just a minute, when I finished my jobs...

Good boy, Mummy

That's right, darling

Yes, I know...

Here's a picture of him trying Daddy's beer... I wish I had one of the face he made afterwards! He won't be doing that again soon!

How to plant apple trees

Here are our new apple trees. They arrived a couple of days ago, which was very exciting. They are only one-year-old saplings, so are still very small, and are grafted onto dwarfing rootstock, so won't grow very big even when they are mature.

The Crispin will be 10-13ft and will be at bearing age in another 2-3 years, and the Redsleeves and Saturn will grow to 8-10 ft and be at bearing age in 1-2 years.

They arrived wrapped in straw, and then plastic, with their bare roots wrapped in a black plastic bag to keep them from drying out. I couldn't plant them the day they arrived, so they have been living in the garage for the past two days, which was what we were told would be the right thing to do with them. Frost free, but cool.

I went out and bought stakes, ties and bonemeal (to help their roots grow) and this morning as I was child-free I bit the bullet, donned my wellies and went out there to dig some holes.

I first measured (roughly) a circle about 2-3 feet diameter around the planting site, and dug the turf from it. Then I dug a hole in the middle of the bare patch. First I put the stake in and shoved it in good and hard, burying it a bit.

After this I sprinkled roughly a handful (but not a technical handful because you don't want to touch this stuff) of bonemeal into the hole.

Then I used the handy cane that they arrived with laid across my hole to see the ground level and then put the little tree in the hole trying to put it in at the same depth that it had come out of the ground.

Next I filled up the hole, and used one of the ties I had bought to attach the treelet to the stake.

Repeat three times!

In other news, I replanted the rhubarb a couple of weeks ago. It was in the wrong place entirely. Too far from the path but not far enough that I could use the space it left. So I have moved it to where the pea teepee was last year. But let me tell you, moving a rhubarb is a big job! I knew I had a big rhubarb plant. It is (at the right time of year) big and lush and produces lots of lovely glossy leaves and delicious stems. And even in dormant state it is big. But dormant is (obviously) the right time to move it, so it was now or never. So one day when the weather was nice and I was having a 'get things done' sort of day (like today) I got to it.

It took me a full two hours, and I was working in the darkness at the end. It was a B-I-G plant. I kept digging a deeper and deeper trench around it and still not getting anywhere near being able to lift it. So as darkness fell and my desperation increased I made a decision. I split it. It was solid rootmass. Not dense, and easy to cut with my spade, but like (I imagine) a huge, slightly woody, truffle. Even half of it was too big for me to lift, so it had to go into quarters.

(Here it is in the summer, on the left)

I have been left with a crater with roots still sticking out of it. I hope the transplant works, but I'll only know when spring arrives and it starts to sprout - hopefully!
In the mean time, once my toes defrost from the tree project this morning, the next stage of the veg plot transformation is to dig over the ex-rhubarb area and get it ready for potatoes. I am thinking Charlottes (like last year) and perhaps Red Duke of York or maybe Pink Fir Apples.

The days are getting longer, the kids are back at school and we are all (relatively) healthy!