Kitchen Garden Forum

Just sitting here watching the sparrows on the roof vent of the greenhouse. They do this every year when the ants nest swarms (not the right term I'm sure but I mean the time when all the flying ants leave the nest). They sit on the vent as it closes - the weather's a bit cold today - trying to get in and out again before it closes too much for them to fit through.
That's one of my pleasures of the gardening year - what's yours?

Well Jenny that sounds lovely
I just love seeing my flowers in bloom and the peace and tranquility!

Looking for, and finding, the first sign of seedlings in a recently planted row or pot. There's nothing like the kick of seeing something dormant spring to life.

Also, watching my lovely Rocky (chicken) rummaging around the allotment in his capacity of chief bug and grub collector.

Watering in the evening after a hot,hot day. The scent of the grateful earth mingled with honeysuckle, roses and herbs. The winding-down song of a single blackbird.
(Oh, and child in bed, husband indoors watching football and large glass of red wine in (my) hand!)

On a sunny day, taking a rest from hard work, lying on my back on "my" path between my two plots, hidden by my plants and watching the swifts, swallows and martins wheeling and swooping far above, little sickles of black animated against the azure blue backdrop.

Harvesting the fruits on one's labours, especially ; strawberries on a warm day, the first new potatoes, the first sweetcorn and after the first frost discovering just how many squash one has.

The sheer mechanical exuberance of a Howard 350 in full dig, with the associated smells.

The smell of fresh mown grass on a warm day.

My dog sitting there on the path patiently waiting fo me to finish and go for a walk, passing the time by looking down her nose at passers by who are not priviledged enough to be allowed in her fenced-off private park.

Sitting on the plot at dusk watching the bats flying overhead, the swans coming into land onto the park lakes.

The smell of honeysuckle and jasmine, and munching fruit and veg straight off the plants, having a good natter with The Grock.

What more does a girlie need?

One of the most beautiful sounds in the world....the song of the skylark

Weed wrote:One of the most beautiful sounds in the world....the song of the skylark

Yes, agree, they seem to be on the increase again round here, especially in fallow fields. I take it your plot or garden is amoungst fields?

When a couple get up together and compete, aah.

Hi Weed and Peter,
My plot is on a migration route and this Spring the Skylarks migrated for days and I have 6 acres of what was set aside and 3 nesting pairs this year as opposed to one last year. Although they are not strictly migratory there is a great shift south during the Autumn and back agin in the Spring.
This year during the very hot spell I heard one up aloft at 2.30am singing its heart out. Marvellous!!

That just sounds like heaven to me... The Skylark's song just goes on and on...They don't ever seem to draw breath.. MAGIC

....that this thread has largely resorted itself to the beauty of the birds, their habits and their song,
without anyone 'engineering' the steer of the thread.

Great chatter subject Jenny !

And on that score, I enjoy watching the adult birds bring their young into the garden to feed when they can barely fly for themselves. It's as funny as.

Other than that, like you Jude, I enjoy watering with a glass of something cold and alcoholic of a summer's evening....

And simply the best gardening pleasure is sitting in our kiddies' paddling pool (because we don't have children) on a hot summer day, reading a book, with a cold glass of Pimms.
This ONLY happens when all the weeding, watering, bird-watching, cooking, cleaning, shopping, cuddling the cat, patting 'elderly next door' on the back for his enviable vegetables, and passifying Trousers that there's enough cheese in the fridge.....
So when it ACTUALLY happens, it's a miracle really...
Which is why it's my ABSOLUTE gardening pleasure !
Wellie

Strange though it may seem, and pleasurable though gardening is, it appears that the greatest gardening pleasure is when we're NOT!

Because we've put so much into it up until then, and we're now just reaping the benefits of all our hard work, and simply enjoying the fruits of our labour.
Which was nice !

I would so like to hear a nightingale again.

We had one at the bottom of our garden when I was about fourteen, 1976, still have a tape that my good friend has recently transferred from open reel to cassette.

Poor thing must have been off target that year, never came back, old hawthorns and nettles seem to have decided him it was a good spot.

A good year for Swallows and last night there were I think over 50+ one on the power cables. I say 50+ because they kept flying off and changing position.
This is just the first brood and they are at it again!!
Peter, if you want to hear a Nightingale take a trip to Minsmere, which is not that far from you, and you will for sure hear one there. I haven't heard one for years and I too would dearly like to hear one and two would be even better.