Can't See The Woods

For the Tree Lilies.
Yes, there's more of them:

These Tree Lilies are the ones growing in pots. Must be about 7 or 8 foot high. Well, they're a lot bigger than me, but then, most things are. The Leycesteria growing in front of them is about 6 foot high. And that's bigger than me too. I'm starting to get a complex here.

Moving swiftly on, the squirrel has been up to his antics again. Now that he's eaten all the cheap food, he's found the good stuff.

Lid off in no time.

And he starts tucking in.

But then he gets a bit erm.....stuck.

Manages to free himself, but loses his balance.

And decides to call it a day.

And finally, saw an unusual sight in the garden today; a family of goldfinches came to visit. That's not the unusual bit. Hang on. Anyway, the parents came to the feeder, but the youngsters were a bit reluctant to come down. Suddenly, they all flew up into the air, and flew off. That's when a sparrowhawk arrived, but he wasn't interested in the goldfinches. Oh no.

Here's the unusual bit; the sparrowhawk was being chased by about half a dozen crows. They put on some amazing aerial displays as they were dive bombing the sparrowhawk. The hawk kept resting in the trees, but everytime he tried to fly away, the crows attacked it again. Eventually, they all flew out of sight, so I don't know what the outcome was. Very strange to see a predator under attack.

Watership Down

No it's not about the rabbits.

This is Phlox paniculata Bright Eyes, purchased five years ago from Hayloft Plants. It took a while to get established in my garden, probably because it likes moisture, and we usually have quite dry summers. But not this year, and I've never seen it look so happy. This is the first bloom, there are many more to follow.

Remember I mentioned a while ago, that the birds were particular about where I get their food from? Well I've solved the problem of what to do with the food they won't eat. I put it in my 'squirrel-proof' feeder. You know, the one where the squirrel just lifts the lid up. He eats anything, problem solved.

And finally, a little observation on the weather. Hope you enjoyed the recent heatwave. Only I've noticed that our very weird weather this year, has actually kept to a very fixed pattern:

End March:   heatwave
April:            wettest April for 100 years
May:             heavy rain like April
End May:      heatwave
June:             wettest June for 100 years
July:              heavy rain like June
End July:       heatwave
August??

Erm, I suppose the pattern could change, but then again........