LoraHughes

LoraHughes, 1 minute ago to gardening

1st poppy of the year. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 5 hours ago to gardening

Yesterday & today. (knautia) #gardening @gardening

Outside, daytime. Same flower. Now the outer petals are so long, they cover most of the green sepals, except for the very tips of a few. The bobble parts are ever so slightly separate now.

LoraHughes, 1 day ago to gardening

These are the best. #gardening @gardening

11 second video. Outside, daytime. Close up of 2 honey garlic flower clusters. The one on the left has its florets mostly open. They are on long stems & face downward in 4 petalled bells. The petals are green at the base, then fade to purple & yellow at the rounded tips. The cluster on the right is all closed buds which stand upright. A bumble bee emerges from one of the open florets & goes inside another, totally covered by the petals. It comes out of that one, checks the others & flies off to the left. Its buz is faintly heard. The background is a cement drive with a border of gravel.

LoraHughes, 2 days ago to gardening

Well, the lost cockatiel is off to a vet that helps lost birds find their humans. In other news, the rose cutting I took a coupla years ago has its first bud ever. Not sure what colour it is - my practice is to take pruning lengths & stick them in compost, then hope for the best. Seems to work well. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 2 days ago to gardening

Big time hog wrestling between 2 males. The bully hog got himself a drink, then went back into the hut, leaving the other one to forage for about 10 minutes. Then out he comes again, rolls the other hog away, gets a drink, & back inside. The attacked hog continued to forage after the 2nd battle, then wandered off home. #hedgehog #gardening @gardening

20 second video. Outside at night in front of a hedgehog feeding hut. A hog forages in the middle of the screen, with a toad house to his left & the hut to his right. A second male comes out of the hut. As he approaches, the first slowly curls up until, when the second males attacks, the first male is in a complete ball that rolls across the ground.

LoraHughes, 3 days ago to gardening

Love my morning #hedgehog fix. Can you spot the lurking hog? #gardening @gardening

20 second video. Outside at night, camera faces a hedgehog feeding area. The head of a hedgehog can be seen inside the wooden stationon the right, listening to the hog outside. The 2nd hog is on the left in front of a toad house, nosing around the gravel, then pushes its head inside the toad house, lifting it off the ground. It pulls out something white, perhaps a grub, & eats it.

LoraHughes, 8 days ago to gardening

Honey garlic causing a bee frenzy. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 9 days ago to gardening

Allium & bees. #gardening @gardening

30 seconds long. Outside, daytime. Gravel area with purple allium being foraged over by bees. The video starts with a large purple allium with 2 bees on it, them moves right past one partially finished purple allium to a third purple allium with several bees, then moves back left to the original allium. In the background between the 2 allium with bees is a shorter white allium fully open.

LoraHughes, 9 days ago to wildlife

So this happened last night. #wildlife @gardening #gardening

20 seconds. Outside, daytime (video clock says 4:31) A vixen sniffs the area in front of a hedgehog feeder set in the anlge where a gray wooden porch meets a brown brick house. She stops & looks up, the moves forward sniffing. A young kit comes into frame behind her from the left, sniffing the ground where the vixen has sniffed. The moved off screen to the right.

LoraHughes, 11 days ago to gardening

Thalictrum black stockings in bud. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 11 days ago to gardening

When we moved in last autumn, an old rose grew up the holly (left trunk), along with brambles & sycamore maple saplings. Red rose hips dotted the holly, thick rose branches hung down to grab anyone close. Love this year's new growth, so thinned most of it out, leaving 2 old stalks, as well as the mature sycamore (right trunk), since I'm not a lumber jack. Hoping the new growth will skirt the trunks while the rose hips do what they did last year. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 11 days ago to gardening

The loropetalum started blooming in early spring before its cousin, the witch hazel, & is continuing to bloom as we head through May. Such a great shrub. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 12 days ago to gardening

With the summer bulbs dying back, the nasturtium are stepping up to the plate. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 12 days ago to gardening

This crittur, which I think is a bee fly, was sniffing around my seed pots, for some reason, literally putting its head to the compost as if sniffing, then moving to the next pot. #gardening @gardening #bugs

LoraHughes, 12 days ago to gardening

Good morning! The woodwardia trying on different colours. Must have a big date. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 13 days ago to gardening

The foxtail lily has just a tad of colour in the lower florets. Exciting! #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 13 days ago to gardening

Monday & another mislabelled geranium. Wish they were a little more exciting. Like getting socks for Christmas. Still, pretty, in their own right, if I'd not seen some of the others, also mislabelled. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 14 days ago to gardening

Ist year growing knautia. Am so excited to see them progress. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 14 days ago to gardening

Good morning. Proceed to envy my sea holly. @gardening #gardening

LoraHughes, 15 days ago to gardening

First nachtvlinder flowers fully open. If you look closely, you can see the bit of blue in the centres. Such a lovely salvia, purported to help reduce black spot on roses when underplated, & smells like lemon when you brush your hands over it. One of those plants I always have to have. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 15 days ago to gardening

Grapes are coming on. #gardening @gardening

LoraHughes, 16 days ago to gardening

Nearly there. Sometime today, I wager. #gardening @gardening

Outside, daytime. Same iris but with one petal on the left at about 10 o'clock.
Outside, daytime. Same flower seen from other side. The first petal is now horizontally open & its opposite is just starting. The smaller mauve centre petals are still closed.
Outside, daytime. Same flower with both dark purple petals open horizontally showing the smaller mauve petals verticalloy open.

LoraHughes, 16 days ago to gardening

Blackberries in the making. #gardening @gardening

Outside, daytime. Close up of white blackberry flower, this one more open, against a wooden fence.
Outside, daytime. Same flower as 2nd photo, taken from slightly further back to show a berry forming to the right of the opening flower.

LoraHughes, 17 days ago to Birds

My word, juvenile robins already! #birds #gardening @gardening

Outside, daytime at a hedgehog feeding station in the corner of where a grey porch meets a brick house. A juvenile robin is in the middle of the gravel area where the feeder is. It looks around, then hops to the water dish near the brick wall to the left of the screen. It gets a quick drink, then hops left around the frog house next to the water dish, stops, then hops out of sight. A juvenile looks much like the adult, except its back is a mottled brown & the breast is tan with brown spots on it. There's a smidgeon of reddish yellow at this one's throat, but overall, very mute colouring at this stage.