Kitchen Garden Forum

Johnboy, we are worried, too. I have yet to see a swallow in the village though others have seen singletons. My son further up the Dales reports the same dearth of birds - they usually have hundreds but only a few have turned up so far. He wondered whether, with the very warm weather we are having, they are hunting higher up?! But I think they would still have seen them. Their house martins (and he usually has a number of nesting pairs on his cottage) have not yet returned either.

Trouble at t' mill in Africa?

Good morning Monika'
I do hope that you are progressing well after your little holiday with the NHS.
Today the number has risen to four Swallows on the power line but they still have a long way to go to catch up on last years number.
JB.

Hi Monika,
Today will go down in history here as D Day. I have been invaded with another 24 Swallows this morning which makes 28 and I suspect that there are still more to come! It is back to the total mayhem of Summer.
Would you even guess that Swallows are my favourite migrant?
Sincerely,
JB.

That's great, Johnboy! I hope they will find their way here, too. It's their cheerful chatter I always enjoy.

And, yes, thank you, I am nearly back to normal (as normal as I will ever be!), even did my usual 40 lane swim on Tuesday and lots of watering today.

We're still waiting for the sight of the first swallow here

Apparently someone claims to have spotted one locally on 1st April. But, since Welsh uses the word gwennol for martins and swifts as well as swallows, who knows?

Two swallows here today!

Finally, saw two this evening.

They finally made it to Wales late Friday evening

Just heard that they are asking people to put trays of damp mud out, in East Anglia, to allow Swallows to be able to build their nests!

Found the first piece of shell on the garage floor yesterday, haven't investigated the nest.

oldherbaceous wrote:Just heard that they are asking people to put trays of damp mud out, in East Anglia, to allow Swallows to be able to build their nests!

No such problems here - the mud's wet enough for them to spray it on

This about sums up our day - 24 hours into predicted 48 hours of continuous rain!

Poor old boy, it seems an awfully long time since i have returned home like that.

Amazing what a difference a few miles can make.

Geoff & Alan, I am reduced to quoting at you the lines delivered by Michael Palin in "Life of Brian", to whit, "You lucky, lucky, lucky, b....."!

A few spits from the heavens is all we have had for ages, the last four rain forecasts haven't materialised, cloudy today but no rain again. Areas where I have added 3" mulch are still moist, despite no watering, but other areas are quite dry. There seems to be a NW / SE divide.