May 2008

Weather This Month

Max Temp =  25.6 deg C               Min Temp =   1.2 deg C           

 Max Wind  17.4 mph              Max Rain in 24 hr Period = 17 mm

 Max Rain in 1 hr Period = 4.6 mm          Total Rain For Month = 41.4 mm

Diary

29th. A break from the garden led my Father, Mandy and myself to the much awaited concert that should be on everybodies "to do" list. The Boss Bruce Springsteen treated the Theatre of Dreams of Old Trafford to a real night of fantastic music celebration. When some of his lines include "I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk" you know it is something special and boy it doesn't just talk it ouzes poetry. The concert lasted about 2 1/2 hours and it was shear class from his opening of "No Surrender" of '84 to the close of "American Land" of 2001. It really is a rollercoaster of a ride as just as it peaks he brings you back down before hitting an almost euphoric high again. The "Magic" tour not only had songs off this album but of one of my favourites in the politically sensitive albums "The Rising" with many thoughts and feeling given a voice to the 911 disaster. Stunning does not do this man justice and I hope it will not be my last chance to see him touring as many a song I have yet to see him sing. If you are looking for a musical experience look no further than Bruuuuuuuuucccceeeee!!!!!!

23rd.  Wow the garden visitors are really an amazing sight at the moment with all the relatively newcomers all doing there bit. Only one loss in the garden since we went away and that is the two Long Tailed Tits that have now left the garden. I imagine that the mealworms were keeping them here so once these had run out whilst i was away I guess that looked elsewhere. The good news is that we still have a Male Bullfinch returning most days and the Lesser Redpoll are also still tucking into the niger seed. The Mistle Thrush is now collecting sultanas to take away for his young and the best news of all is that we now have 4 male house Sparrows and 2 female House Sparrows taking mealworm away for young. This piece of news really has been the goal of my garden. whilst I have as yet not totally fulfilled the aim of having "home grown" Sparrows I have for the first time held onto a small colony of them. I shall at this years BBWF at Rutland purchase a quality Sparrow box and place it under my eaves in readiness to hopefully take my next step into securing a colony of the "gardens" own Sparrows.

Funny as all the energy saving measures and recycling have not even come close to the feeling of finally (hopefully) doing my bit for saving further the decrease in Sparrow numbers in our gardens. It feels quite personal in so much that I feel my actions are having a very local and beneficial effect on my immediate surroundings. It's tangible and I can see it every day out of our house window and it feels great.

My allergies have also been non existent so I can finally "breathe" easy without having to take medication.

17th.  Well fresh back from our Lesvos birding holiday and it seems that just like last year when we went to Mallorca the weather here has matched ours abroad. I was surprised to see that temps had reached 25 deg C on the 11th and that only 24mm of rain  has fallen with 1mm of that falling whilst we have been back! I shall updated the "Holiday Reports" section on the site but with upwards of 4500 pics to sift through this always takes longer than I care to think about. The holiday was great and a picture I took prior to leaving on the 1st of May looks a lot different to the picture I have taken after we got back on the 15th. I cannot believe the difference in the growth and flower count in only a two week gap. I presume much of this has been down to the sunshine and warmth, although a few plants around the garden do look in need of water.

Before

After