Sunday Lunch

Reaping the benefits

Well August is finally here, it is officially summer, kids on holiday, flowers in bloom and of course black clouds and rain. Oh well the peas and potatoes seem to have enjoyed the wet the weather at least, which has meant I have been able to harvest satisfying amounts of peas and potatoes for tea which has been really rewarding. I am starting to see the benefits of growing your own, as my son sits with me shelling peas and trying them straight from the pod.

Mother Nature strikes again...

As we sat outside enjoying the morning sun I spotted a nest with a bird roosting in it. Looking through binoculars with Jack we saw that it was a Wood Pigeon nesting amongst the apple tree branches, as we watched she was joined by another pigeon. However the roosting Pigeon took no notice of her visitor as he flitted from one branch to another. After a while he began to fly at the roosting bird desperate to be noticed, this must have got some what tiresome for the female (having watched many many BBC wildlife programmes, I now began to assume that it was indeed a male pigeon trying his hardest to entice a female), or she simply wanted him away from her nest because she flew off to a tree near by.

Sadly this did not lure the male away from her nest, instead he knocked it off the branches and two eggs fell to the ground. On the female's return she looked hopelessly for her nest and eggs, eventually she sat quietly on the branches where her nest once was with a twig in her beak.

School Holidays

As the school year ended we headed off to Suffolk, a beautiful part of England, spending two weeks on an idyllic campsite with lush green grass among an apple and pear orchard surrounded by a moat. Everyday a little Moorhen family hurried back and forth across the field and everyday we were bombarded by FLIES!

And as I battled to keep the flies away from our meals I began to question their purpose, do they pollinate flowers?... help sow seeds?... or eat garden pests?... So as soon as we arrived home, well after I had had a cup of tea I googled their purpose and found this link http://scienceray.com/biology/what-is-the-purpose-of/

I still don't appreciate them