Wet, Wet, Wet

Today Lincolnshire seems to have taken the brunt of the wet weather.
Possibility of a month's rainfall to be dumped on us in a couple of days.
Quite a few trees down, blocking roads.
A great long list of roads closed by flooding.
Fire and rescue inundated with calls to pump out flood water.

These about sum it up locally:

Garden


Overflowing drain


At least one more day, maybe two, of rain to come this week.
To think a few of days ago there were calls for farmers to take less water from our local rivers as levels were so low. Now many have burst their banks.

A Few Wildflowers

... from our visit to South Thoresby Warren.

Hope the IDs are correct.

Clover



Birdsfoot Trefoil



Scarlet Pimpernel



Doves-foot Cranebill

South Thoresby Warren

How time flies. It has been ten years since I first visited and wrote about South Thoresby Warren, Lincolnshire. This piece of land was once a sand quarry, then used for land fill and finally made in to a small nature reserve open to the public. Yesterday it was a toss up as to whether I cut my grass or we had a trip out. As it looks as though the weather is going to become changeable with showers forecast the trip out won.

 

We both enjoyed a stroll round the shorter route, just having to double back at one stage as we were heading out instead of round. I sampled the sights and sounds and Penny sampled a whole lot of new odours.



The reserve consists of a mixture of open grassland and a small wooded area. New native trees are being added.

For a change I made the photos I took into a slide show with a soundtrack of sounds recorded while we had a short rest on one of the benches provided.



As there was a stiff breeze at times there is some wind noise and a few flowers moved too much for sharp photos. Disappointing in that I saw not one mammal, a few birds rushing about, and just one bee.

 

The only insect which stayed still was this beetle I found resting on the car door on our return.

The Hitch-hiker

We had just returned from our early morning walk.
As I was about to undo Penny's harness I spotted the hitch-hiker.



A Hawthorn Shieldbug



It stayed long enough for me to take the Nikon out of my shirt pocket and take a few shots



A bit of a morning for close encounters.
I had spent a while watching Swifts hurtling overhead, sometimes diving down to just a couple of feet above my head as they careered past on their endless hunt for flying insects. They were still feeding their young but didn't land on the nest. Just hovered next to it for a brief moment to hand over the food before setting off again.

Not Long to Wait

In May last year I planted a Callistemon citrinus (bottlebrush plant) in the front garden.



I wondered how well it would grow outdoors. In just one year it has grown to



Recently I've been keeping an eye on it to see whether it would flower this year.
Yippee! Two branches are showing buds. Unusual in that the flowers are produced part way along new growth.
Why it is called a bottlebrush plant will, I hope, become evident when the flowers open.



Many years ago I had one flowering in my old conservatory but one hard Winter it disappeared.
How long the outdoor one lives could depend on how severe future Winters are.

Daytime Flying Month

Once again something caught my eye as we were walking down the lane mid afternoon:



A Silver-ground Carpet moth. (Xanthorhoe montanata)

Mowing in Comfort

Reasonable comfort anyway. Unfortunately my stamina and physical abilities have lessened over the past year or so. I may not have a very big garden by some standards, approximately 3,600 square feet with about two thirds grassed. It had reached the stage where I couldn't get it all cut in one session and needed some time to recover afterwards. Walking back and forth pushing, or even following a powered mower, I cover over a quarter of a mile.  I mentioned a while back I had been to a mower centre to have a look at ride on mowers. On a second visit I made my mind up that the smallest one they had would just go through my gates to the back garden.  It was delivered a few days ago and I gave it a quick try out.



Battery starting so no heaving on bits of rope. Forward and reverse accelerator pedals make manoeuvring easy. Comfy padded seat which is just as well as there is more than a bit of vibration. Hardest is steering. After years of driving cars with power assisted steering one forgets how much effort it can take. I did find operating the long lever which engages the cutter needed both hands to pull as it is stiff and has the be engaged slowly otherwise the engine is liable to stall.

Yesterday the weather was fine enough to gave it a full run and soon got used to the various levers for engaging the cutter (need to press two pedals at once to cut in reverse), choosing cut height, etc..  Best of all, myself feeling fresh and lively when I had finished.

Still need to use the strimmer or battery mower to finish off awkward corners but  the ride on breaks the back of the job.

It would possibly have been cheaper, even in the long run, to employ someone or rely on generous, helpful neighbours to cut the grass but I hate the thought of not being able to do things for myself when there is a solution to the problem.