No Glue was Used....

Wednesday, April 22

Such an exciting day yesterday. We went out twice. Once for the two hour parking locally whilst Sam cleaned, followed by a chiropodist visit. The only bird of interest seen was another lone Swallow.

I did not use any glue at all in the end on the Butterfly feeder bought from The Butterfly Conservation online shop. When I tried to assemble it, none of the dozen pieces of dowel fitted the drilled holes. 

Adrian took it home and he and Sam set to on it. 

 

 

They have since requested that I do not buy any more as they had to file down the dowels and the holes split when they were inserted. 

The padded roller is soaked in a sugar solution, the bucket can also be filled and placed in the indentation behind the roller or, hung from the front.

Big question..... will any butterflies or moths use it?

To-day, I have removed several clumps of Bluebells from the raised alpine bed whilst Pam finished lopping the too big conifers. Neither of us wanted to destroy the trees but it was a case of too big for the situation. 

Now we have the roots to deal with. The base of the bed is rubble including broken bricks as padding. This was in order to try and replicate the plants' natural conditions and to save on the use of JI 3 and alpine grit which makes up the planting medium. The tree roots are well embedded.

Several of the diminutive Little Princess alpine tulips are now opening their faces to the sun.

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The onions have grown well. The net supports have been left in place to deter the pheasants from trampling all over them. Looking carefully, one of their dust bath indentations is visible back right.

The last of the fruit trees to blossom is the Conference pear. Although the days are warm, nights are cold, I hope that there isn't any frost whilst the flowers set 

The potatoes keep poking their heads through too, I don't think that they can be soiled up any more than they have already. The pheasants have trampled those too. I like nice neat furrows - so does Adrian.

The cold nights have not improved the moth catch either but we keep trying. You've got to put the trap out because you never know..........

One new for 2020 yesterday, a Nutmeg.

Moth Quiz Clue:

You'd need a big box of tissues if you caught one of these.

Reminder: the answer is one of the moths we have trapped this year.