Our village Jubilee Fair

Yes, I know it was a tad early, but we had a lovely afternoon at our village Jubilee celebration last Sunday afternoon.

The weather was dry, if a little nippy, but the mood was far from chilly. Organised by the lovely Nadia and her assistant Sara, we had a smoothie bike, a grill (thanks to the scouts), stalls, a bouncy castle, a dog show, teas and cakes (thanks to the WI) and a great band, Virgin Soldiers, playing to an appreciative audience.

The band Virgin Soldiers

The ladies from the WI serving young and old

Steve and I set up a stall to promote planting for bees and other pollinators, and brought our mini mobile meadow in a wheel barrow, which proved very popular!

There was also a Jubilee cake competition which had some really clever entries.

I was quite surprised to see how many different varieties of dog breeds that entered the dog show. I suppose our village is a doggie sort of place, what with all the wonderful countryside around, it makes for perfect walkies.

If you have a dog, and we do (it was Zaf's first day out today) I hope you can get out to enjoy the sudden lovely change in weather!

The Floral Fringe

Restored camper -oh gorgeous!

The Floral Fringe Fair was held at the private country home of the Viscount and Viscountess Mersey, Bignor Park, Nr. Petworth in West Sussex at the weekend. The Floral Fringe Fair - a plant, contemporary craft and local food fair with an emphasis on wildlife and encouraging wildlife into the garden was held in the 11 acre grounds. 

Green-winged orchids on the lawn in front of the house

There were bug hunts, a moth trap and various guided walks. The stalls included a selection of specialist nurseries, contemporary crafts, woodland products and local food producers.

Lunches and teas were served in the newly restored historic stables, and they even had gluten-free cakes! It was a nice afternoon out, once we found the place, which was tucked away in the back of beyond!

The old orchard

We came back with a couple of plants and a 'butterfly garden' sign. The fair had a nice genteel atmosphere and I would definitely go again next year!

Hope you have a lovely week in this beautiful sunshine

Our village FlowerScapes road verge project

On Friday, after many delays, we began clearing the road verge in our village, which in previous years had assorted annual bedding plants on. What we initially thought was going to be reasonably straightforward, turned into quite a task.

We had been led to believe that the verge had been strimmed, but in fact the grass was very long. We had brought along a turf stripper to remove the grass before we could sow the FlowerScapes flower verge. Luckily the weather held, and several lovely villagers had turned up to help clear the site.

We decided in the end the only way forward was to fetch a strimmer, then mow, then strip.  But boy this was hard work, and six hours later, and many trips to remove trailer loads of turf and clippings, we'd done the best we could.

Our aim is to grow a flower garden for bees and other pollinators on the road verge. Instead of bedding plants which often are highly bred, and so devoid of nectar, the pollinator flower seed mix contains over 40 species which are good for bees and other insects. This first year, due to delays from county authorities, the seeds will be sown later than I had wanted, but I hope it will nevertheless give a reasonable display of forage and wow factor in order to encourage bee planting the following year.

Well done to all who helped out on the day, it was great to see so many pulling together, and a special big thank you to the stalwarts who stayed the course!

Little M takes a well earned rest!

Have a lovely week

Bee-friendly Plant of the Month - Onion

Guest blogger - Steve Alton

Plants of the onion family have spent millions of years evolving a cocktail of sulphur-based compounds designed to make them unpalatable to predators. These compounds, when released into the air, react with water to form a weak solution of sulphuric acid, hence their eyewatering reputation. Imagine their disappointment, then, when humans decided that this pungency was a desirable characteristic rather than a deterrent.

Since so many members of the genus Allium share this distinctive flavour and, as members of the Lily family, have attractive flowers, they have become popular garden plants both as vegetables and as ornamentals.  The Chive is one of the most familiar and is long established in cultivation; often said to have been introduced by the Romans, it is almost certainly native to parts of western and northern Britain, where it grows on limestone rocks and cliff faces.

There are several other species of wild onion, some native and some certainly introduced, but the majority are relatively scarce or downright rare, such as the Round-headed Leek found only on the rocks of the Avon Gorge. But one member of this distinctive family is both widespread and very obvious in the landscape. 

 

Wild garlic - Allium ursinum - differs from its cousins in having a broad oval leaf, but one sniff is all that is needed to confirm its family affinities. Known variously as Ramsons, Devil’s Posy, Stinking Nanny and Gipsy’s Gibbles, this plant of damp woods and stream banks will, when happy, carpet huge areas with its fresh green leaves and star-like white flowers. The scent is so pungent that large colonies are almost always smelled before they are seen, but the flavour of the leaves is surprisingly mild and they have become a fashionable addition to salads and pasta sauces in up-market restaurants.

 

Sufficiently different to have been consigned to its own genus, Nectaroscordum siculum is an elegant architectural plant with nodding, bell-like flowers in shades of pink and gold. The foliage has a less pleasant smell than many of the onions, but the flowers have a honey scent and the abundant nectar they produce makes them very popular with bees.

 

 

Cockchafers and bluebells

The cockchafer (colloquially called may bug, mitchamador, billy witch, or spang beetle)

This ferocious looking beetle sat outside our front door on Sunday morning, as we set off for a walk to see the local bluebell woods. Once abundant throughout Europe and a major pest, the cockchafer had been nearly eradicated in the middle of the 20th century through extensive use of pesticides and has even been locally exterminated in many regions. However, since an increase in regulation of pest control from the beginning of the 1980s, its numbers have started to grow again.

Adults appear at the end of April or in May and live for about five to seven weeks. After about two weeks, the female begins laying eggs, which she buries approx. 10 to 20 cm deep in the earth. She may do this several times until she has laid between 60 and 80 eggs. The preferred food for adults is oak leaves, but they will also feed on conifer needles.

The larvae, known as "white grubs" or "chafer grubs", hatch after four to six weeks. They feed on plant roots, for instance potato roots. The grubs develop in the earth for three to four years, in colder climates even five years, and grow continually until they reach a size of about 4–5 cm, before they pupate in early autumn,, and then develop into an adult cockchafer in six weeks. Both the grubs and the adults have a voracious appetite and thus have been, and sometimes continue to be, a major problem in agriculture and forestry.

In some areas and times, cockchafers were even served as food. A 19th century recipe from France for cockchafer soup reads: "roast one pound of cockchafers without wings and legs in sizzling butter, then cook them in a chicken soup, add some veal liver and serve with chives on a toast". And a German newspaper from Fulda from the 1920s tells of students eating sugar-coated cockchafers. A cockchafer stew is referred to in W.G. Sebald's novel The Emigrants. Yum, yum!!

It was our first family walk with Zaf, so we didn't wander too deep into the woods.

Wow, so very beautiful - a sea of bluebells

Lovely droopy purply bells

Sooo much to sniff at!

Sunny blue skies through the newly emerged lime green leaves

Prettily named Yellow Archangel (more info here)

Although sunny, it was rather wet and muddy.

BB enjoying having a woofie friend with him

Zaf did very well, and didn't get too tangled up in his lead. We headed home for lunch on the sunny patio. when we got home I found a beautiful Ruby tiger moth on path next to the house. Isn't it gorgeous? When it opened it's wings, a pink and black spotted abdomen was revealed.

 Making the most of the lull in the rain, lunch at home was served outdoors!

Greek salad with home grown rocket

Happy days!

Additonal info from Wikipedia

Have a happy day!