Flighty's plot

A new home and a new time

The long running Gardener’s World returns to BBC2 tomorrow evening at 8.00pm. However it will be coming from a new home Greenacre in the West Midlands. Toby Buckland, Carol Klein, Joe Swift and Alys Fowler are the experts who reveal ten tasks that will kick-start your garden.

Another long running series is Countryfile on BBC1 Sunday at 7.00pm, which is at a new time having previously been shown on Sunday mornings. Along with John Craven will be new presenters Julia Bradbury and Matt Baker. Surprisingly I’ve never mentioned this here, I suppose because invariably I’ve been out when it’s on.

These are both much-loved programmes which I’m looking forward to settling down to watch.

The BBC Dig In website launches today which is a campaign all about raising your own tasty vegetables from sowing to scoffing!

Have a good weekend!

A froggy Friday!

I started yesterday as I generally do with a cup of tea and a look at various news websites where I came across this item.

Later in the day the post arrived and included a hand-written and lumpy envelope. I opened it up to find this wonderful hand-made card with a furry green frog floating on his back in a pond, along with another one. dscn1080

The message in the card reads… To Uncle Flighty from Robin and Isaac…who are Fraggle’s sons. It really is nice to be thought of like this!

After lunch I was reading Nikki’s faves for mar 27 post at the end of which she mentions Frog Newton and links to Freakiest and Weirdest Froggy Frog Frogs!

Not only was it a froggy Friday but thanks to the smiley ecard my lovely friend Daffy sent me it was an upsy-daisy day as well!

I’ve had the sniffles and a sore throat most of the week but was feeling somewhat better yesterday thanks I’m sure to the feel-good factor generated by these cards and blog post.

Thanks to you all!

Incidentally I’m building up quite a frog collection but it’s nowhere near as impressive as Glo’s frog ensemble!

A good cause

I realise that supporting charities is a very personal act and this post shows a little of what I, and others, do to support a few of them.

The charity that I currently support on a regular basis is Thrive which is a horticultural charity which uses gardening to change lives. I have a link to it here under A Good Cause.

I tend not to keep many books so every now and again I have a sort out and take some to my local Barnardo’s bookshop. Needless to say that whilst there I always have a look round and never come home empty-handed!

I always buy some of my cards at one of the Cancer Research UK shops, and occasionally other items such as a snazzy waistcoat!

Last Sunday I sadly found a dead fox, not Fox Newton or Missy, on the allotments. It was in a really pitiful state and had clearly died from mange, which if untreated causes a lingering death. The National Fox Welfare Society shows how they help treat this terrible condition.

Fellow bloggers are often great charity donors as shown by Veg Plotting with her Open Garden ‘Day’ which has so far raised over £1000 for WaterAid.

Charities have been hard-hit in recent months and suffered a dramatic decline in direct donations. As you can see there a number of other ways in which we can all help with some of them, such as doing a blog like Charity Shop Tourism, costing little more than our goodwill and time.

Have a good weekend!

Blog birthdays and a break

Glo (Porcelain Rose) celebrates her first blog birthday today. From her first post Take-off! I have continually enjoyed her blog and, of course, also been more than grateful for her Frog ponderings images here.

Other recent ones have been London, almost-Daily Nature Photo and Uphilldowndale, both celebrating their second blog birthdays.

Daffy has decided to take a break and has closed off her blog whilst she does. Rest assured that she is okay, and knowing her as I do I’m sure that she’ll be back before too long. It’s just that lately she’s felt that she hasn’t been able to give her blog, or her friends blogs and comments, the attention that she feels they deserve.

Watching and working

I’ve long thought that the foxes drink from the original pond as I usually have to top it up with at least a half a bucket of water most days I’m there. Yesterday morning this was confirmed by Fox NewtonAs you can see he’s rather mangy compared with Missy Newton! It was wonderful just sitting watching him for several minutes, and of course getting this photo of him.

I then got to work planting my Swift early seed potatoes and onion sets. I should be eating the potatoes by the end of May but the onions won’t be ready until August. I also sowed half of the broad beans Masterpiece Green Longpod which mature from July onwards.

Back in December I was given some bulbs most of which I planted here dscn1075 It’ll be interesting to see what blooms from these!

I was also given a few narcissus Little Gem mini daffodils dscn1073

I was surprised to see this pansy Blue Jokeras I thought that none had grown. It’s a cheeky looking flower isn’t it! The four stems on the left of the photo are all that remain of these!

Even though most of the plot is bare earth it was still nice to sit and look round, especially with these just a few feet away dscn1076 and several bumble bees lazily buzzing around.

On Friday morning I saw a grey heron circle overhead before landing by the adjacent ecology park pond. That’s only the second one I’ve seen whilst I’ve been plotting.

Three to watch

Tonight on BBC1 at 9.00pm is Hottest Place on Earth – Episode 1 in which Kate Humble and Steve Leonard travel to the Danakil desert in northern Ethiopa to see how humans and animals survive there. The programme is being shown again on Sunday BBC1 at 6.00pm.

Tomorrow evening on BBC2 at 8.00pm sees the second Gardeners’ World special No Grounds for Gardening in which Joe Swift takes a look at vertical gardens in his quest for a greener urban future.

On Saturday BBC2 at 8.00pm is Timewatch – WW1 Aces Falling which looks at two of Britain’s greatest WW1 fighter pilots, Edward Mannock and James McCudden, and the 90 year old mystery of the death of the former.

Have a good weekend!

Meet Frog’s pondie!

This morning I found this delightful little duckling on the new pond… dscn1052 which apparently she likes as it’s nice and shallow.

She also likes Frog’s pond… dscn1056 and felt sure that he’d not mind sharing it!

She ended up happily nestled in the log pile… dscn1061 which was where I left her when I came home.

She was very quiet so I didn’t find out her name. Any suggestions as to what it might be will be most welcome!

Frog ponderings in springtime

As I mentioned in Sunday’s post I moved the original pond last week. Thankfully Frog Newton pond-frog-titlerev seems happy with his home being moved if this card is anything to go by! frog-pond-moved [Frog should be hopping across the picture and into the pond like this!]

Frogs everywhere seem overjoyed that springtime is here if blog posts such as NiC’s London Daily Nature Photo First Spawn and Proud Parents, Uphilldowndale’s Sunny Mood and Georgie’s So pleased are any indication!

My thanks to Glo (Porcelain Rose) for the images.

Happy ponderings! frog

Books and the plot

During the week I bought myself a couple of reference books with some tokens that I’d been given for Christmas.

Grow Organic is a practical guide to gardening the natural way with expert advice from Garden Organic, the UK’s leading organic growing charity. This is a cleaner, greener Made With Care book published by Dorling Kindersley.

My only bird book is a Collins gem Garden Birds which is fine but I wanted another one to go with it. I settled on Birds in your Garden which is full of superb photos and plenty of useful information. For Woodpigeon it says…Big, bluff and bloated it struts around your garden like Colonel Blimp, an official stripe on each wing and it’s chest pumped out as if it owned the place… With writing like that how could I resist!

With more rain earlier in the week the ground is still sticky on the plot although I did manage to fork over most of the vegetable patches. That done I’m now all ready to plant some early potatoes and the onion sets, and sow some broad beans, later in the month.

Mid-week I moved the original pond a few feet nearer to the log pile. dscn1047

This frees up some ground where I shall have a double row of runner beans with a few sweet peas.

Do you remember this photo which I took just less than two months ago? Well yesterday morning they looked like this! dscn1050

Far and near

Countrywise is a new series on ITV1 starting today at 7.30pm. Paul Heiney explores rural Britain and meets the people who make it special.

Gardeners’ World makes a welcome return tomorrow on BBC2 at 8.00pm with the first of three hour-long specials. This one is The Plant Addicts in which Carol Klein reveals how plants have played an integral part in her life.

Sunday on BBC2 at 8.00pm sees Yellowstone 1/3. Winter. This new series looks at America’s original national park which was established in 1872, and is mostly located in Wyoming. The programme is being shown again on Monday BBC2 at 7.00pm.

NiC over on London Daily Nature Photo featured this sparrow on Monday where I commented that I rarely see any nowadays. However on Tuesday around 5.30.pm I heard birds twittering away in the trees outside. I looked and was amazed to see around fifty of them in the tree tops. Sadly once one of our most common birds it is now a rarity, with London alone having lost two-thirds of them since the mid-1990s. Who Killed the Cockney Sparrer? on BBC Radio 4 next Wednesday at 9.00pm investigates just why these little beauties are now in real danger of extinction.

Have a good weekend!