Back to winter

After a gloriously warm few days, which tricked everyone into thinking that the winter was over, we have once again returned to more normal March temperatures with some morning frosts and icy winds.  However, I have endeavoured to continue tidying up my garden area and found some positive things happening already.

I planted some bulbs at the end of 2012 and these produced a beautiful result last year.  Now I see they are nearly ready to flower again, producing some cheerful colour into the bed around the car park.






Also, right by these, the trusty armeria plants are showing signs of life and will soon be flowering in their lovely bright pink colour and starting to attract the early season insects.

Plants that struggled through the harsh 2012/13 winter have had a much easier time of it this year and so the two hebes that I have in tubs are looking quite robust.  They really struggled to do anything last year after being nearly destroyed by the weather but hopefully this year they will flower much more.

I am ready with seeds to plant - Hartsease to put in cracks in walls and paving, ox-eye daisy for my wild flower areas and corn marigold for the car park areas.  All of these should attract wildlife.

You might have heard the old tale - 'When in the trees the rooks build high expect the summer to be warm and dry'  Well we don't get many rooks right by us but someone who lives in another part of Scarborough has said that this is exactly what the rooks are doing.  Rooks, as you might know (particularly if you follow Autumn or Spring Watch), are incredibly clever birds.  So maybe they do know something.

Additionally I have heard that minke whales have been sighted by fishermen 25 miles off the coast.  This shows that as the sea warms up the smaller fish that these whales feed on are being attracted by the food further down the food chain.

So maybe Spring is coming?????

Spring has sprung

Well, Spring appears to have arrived, at least for a few days and armed with a pair of new garden shears I have started the job of clearing up the garden and tub areas.

My main concern was that the buddleia was sprouting new green leaves the expected 12 cm up the old stems and therefore the old growth from last year was looking brown and lifeless above the new shoots.  This has now been rectified, as shown below.


So it looks like this might do quite well this year and hopefully attract a few more butterflies than last year.

The snow drops are coming to the end of their flowering life now but when fully open they are really pretty.  As I had a 50% increase on last year, I will try to pop a few more bulbs in later this year and with any luck have another massive increase in numbers next year.

Not much to say as yet on the wildlife spotting front although I understand the Peregrine Falcons are nesting on the north bay again this year, but I don't know exactly where as yet.  I will find out and let people know.

Also, unusually a sea lion has been making an appearance on the south bay over the last few weeks.  It comes in, lies on the beach and then leaves as the tied goes out.  The police, I understand, have been putting a cordon round it to protect it.  I can't imagine this is going to be a regular event but it's quite nice if likes the beach in Scarborough at least for a while.