May Days

Defra (Dept for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) have decided to spend thousands of pounds of public money to destroy nests of Common Buzzards.  Apparently some wealthy landowners claim the Buzzards are killing their Pheasants and spoiling their Shooting parties.  The Buzzard is a protected species; Pheasants are bred to shoot.  Surely they should just breed more Pheasants!  There must be thousands of people like me who love to see this beautiful bird soaring in a blue sky.  Defra should save the money and leave us with the birds!

Here is a link to a petition if you agree with me:  http://www.change.org/topics/animals#search/buzzard

May Days

The garden is full of Aquilegia at the moment - one of my favourite flowers. 

Easy to grow, self-seeding and lots of colour.  What more do you need?



Aquila is the Latin name for Eagle.  The petal was thought to resemble an eagle's claw hence the name Aquilegia. 

The Oriental Poppies and Peonies are opening.  The Honeysuckle is so heavy it pulled the trellis away from the fence. 

The renovation work has moved on as we have erected two lines of trellis towards the front of the garden.  I wanted to screen the main garden from passers-by.  One line of trellis would have worked but I preferred to stagger it by placing one line at one side of the path and the second line on the other side of the path.  I'm pleased with it so far.

Andy originally put the Greenman head at the top of the pole, which I quite liked, until he pointed out it looked like an executed criminal!

Anyone got any  suggestions for a scented, quick climbing plant for a West-facing trellis?