Recognition

Local Hero - JH on our allotment.

After a particularly trying time on the allotment this year, with the twin evils of potato blight and pouring rain destroying much of what we tried to grow, it was a rather pleasant surprise and a welcome boost to morale when we found that Jon had been nominated for one of our local council's inaugural allotment awards.  It was even more of a boost to actually receive a 'Certificate of Merit' for our plot, as in all honesty we probably lavished less love and care on it this year than usual. 

I have no hesitation at all in giving Jon the credit for the award, as although I generally make the call regarding what gets planted and where, and play a full part in getting the seeds into the ground and the produce out again, Jon has been responsible for the routine maintenance of keeping the paths strimmed and neat from one week to the next, and has also done most of the weeding.

The certificates were presented, along with a cup for the best kept plot (to a rival site - boo, hiss!) and shield for best newcomer (to our neighbouring plot-holder Chris, a very well-deserved award) at a reception at Kidsgrove Town Hall.  The Town Mayor, Councillor Gill Burnett, handed out the prizes, and there were complementary drinks, including beer, wine and non-alcoholic and crisps and breadstick snacks.  It was great to see some allotmenteers had brought their families along, and also encouraging to note several certificates of merit to female plot-holders. 

We couldn't help wondering what the scene might have been thirty years ago; probably all gents gathered around tables, wreathed in cigarette smoke and with pints and ham sandwiches before them.  We've come a long way since the allotment was where Himself went to get away from 'Er Indoors! 

So many thanks to everyone at Kidsgrove, especially Town Clerk Jill Waring, for organising such an enjoyable social event and encouraging us in our horticultural endeavours. 

Ladybird, Ladybird, Fly Away Home...?

Sticking with the entomological theme of the previous post for the time being (though I can't help wondering why entomology isn't the study of walking, talking trees rather than insects), the brief splash of warm weather at the weekend seemed to trigger the hatching of a veritable kaleidoscope of strangely-coloured and unusually marked ladybirds.

A wee bit of research indicates that they are Harlequin Ladybirds Harmonia axyridis which is supposed to be bad news as they are regarded as an invasive non-native species with the potential to out-compete native ladybirds. 

Yeah, the nasty little foreign b*****ds!  Coming over here, eating our aphids...!  Whatever next?

Well, call me unpatriotic, but I don't really care whether these guys are technically 'invaders' and not 'indiginous'.  They're pretty, they are eating the aphids on my fruit trees, bless their glossy little wing cases, and I'm not squishing them just because they can't trace their family trees back to a creepy crawly ancestor mooching about in Boudicca's back garden.  I don't have any time for racism when it's applied to my fellow human beings, so I'm damned if I'm going to persecute insects on that basis.

Metamorphosis - larva transforming into a beetle

Most of my ornamentals and edibles in the plant department aren't 'native' either, but am I going to dig them up and expel them any time soon?  I think not. 

I like grey squirrels too, and not in stews and casseroles being served at restaurants trying to be trendy or edgy, but scampering about in trees and parks and even raiding the bird table and robbing the nuts off the hazel tree.  Thanks to their habit of burying food and forgetting where they've stashed it (which invites debate on how they do compete so effectively, does it not?), I have a good supply of young hazel trees ready for transplanting, so in future years there will be nuts enough for us to share.  I even have one as my ident on my Flick photostream!

I'm delighted to say that I'm not alone in this respect.  Thanks to a recent Guardian article (of course I'm a Guardian reader!  What else could I read - it ain't going to be the Daily Mail, is it?) on the proposed culling of grey squirrels, I found this brilliantly argued and forthrightly funny article by naturalist and TV presenter Chris Packham.

 http://www.wildlifeextra.com/do/ecco.py/view_item?listid=2&listcatid=11&listitemid=3959&live=0#cr

Towards the end of the article, Chris writes: "A serious, even custodial sentence awaits anyone deliberately releasing non native species into the wild; this even applies if you nurse a Grey squirrel back to health and let it go again; that's fine, okay... Well, what about the six hundred thousand Ring-necked Pheasants turned out every year just so they can be blown out of the skies, or get run over, whichever comes first? Non-natives that support a complete industry, a whole economy... Oh, yeah, well that's different isn't it mate. Funny that, one rule for rats another for big money and influential people who like to kill things - certain ugly parallels wouldn't you say?"

Right on, Packham!  Seriously, Chris mate, right on!

The Butterfly Effect

Peacock Butterfly

You've probably heard the of the 'chaos theory' concept that the minute disturbances of the atmosphere caused by the fluttering of a butterfly's wings can be the origin of a hurricane or tropical storm on the other side of the world.  I'm not sure whether I find that scary or inspirational.

Red Admiral

This year in our garden, I have to say that the more obvious impact has been of the weather on butterflies, rather than vice versa; I have never seen so few as during the present cold, wet summer.

Painted Lady

In previous years our garden has been home to plenty of glorious butterflies and sometimes they even settle long enough for me to get the camera focused on them.

The first seen is often the Peacock, sometimes quite early in March, with Tortoiseshells, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Comma sighted throughout the spring and summer, joined by Red Admirals and Painted Ladies later in the spring and through to autumn.

Old Comma on a blackberry leaf

This year, I have seen very few butterflies of any species, but that doesn't mean they haven't sneaked in unobserved from time to time.  Indeed, while my back has been turned there have clearly been some busy in the garden, if not the ones we're happy to see.

Shredded broccoli, thanks to cabbage white caterpillers.

While we were away on our narrowboat trips, the Cabbage Whites must have been about, as we've been picking lots of chubby green and black striped caterpillars off of our lacy-looking brassica crops over the last few days and gleefully dropping the little blighters into the pond.

So be warned caterpillers - mess with our cabbages, and you'll literally be sleeping with the fishes!