Take a walk on the wild side

It’s all gone a bit Johnny Morris over here in SE23 again. We’ve got a Magpie’s nest high up in the Pyrochantha with mum Magpie sitting on the eggs all day and dad on the ponce for food wandering about the garden and coming right up to the back window without a care in the world. We know it’s waiting for the right moment when the back door is left open so it can nick the cat’s food (we haven’t got a case of Hitchcockian bird paranoia as it’s happened before). They ain’t scared of the cats or us humans for that matter and may even be slowly sussing out where we keep the spare door keys as they are that smart here. In this picture below you can just make out the tail feathers of the Magpie in that large nest, it’s crazy stuff.

We had two tweeting Robins yesterday (one of them features in the main picture above) trying to tell us something as they perched very close to us on the fence. We were thinning out some plants in the pond (and leaving them on the side for a bit for any wildlife travellers to hop back in the water). The Robin chat went on for ages and started to get more urgent as afternoon changed into evening. Even though we aren’t that versed in Robinspeak we reckon they were telling us to make sure we put the netting back over the pond when we were finished as they had some information through the bird grapevine something bad was going to happen in the morning.

At 7am today while making a cup of tea the enemy of the garden pond and the Lewisham pet shop goldfish contained therein, the Lewisham Heron was spotted by the pond all still and lifeless. It’s a right old git but you can’t help looking at in wonder as it stands frozen on the spot. The first time we ever spotted it we thought someone had stuck a plastic bird in the garden as a joke. With its size, cockiness and cunning you know it’s got to be the King or Queen in the Lewisham bird world and left alone by the south London Magpies, Pigeons and Parakeets which are all up there in the “You wouldn’t want to be messing with us” birds league table. We once saw it in action “fishing” in the Quaggy in Ladywell Fields, well still yet very skilful when it caught his dinner!

One thing that makes us think every time we see the Heron flap off into the distance of Lewisham Town Centre, is it related to the Pterodactyl from times gone by when the caveman roamed around here?

Thank goodness the spuds didn’t go in

This was the state of the weather in SE23 on Wednesday, thank God we didn’t sow any seeds last weekend. The sun’s supposedly out tomorrow but it’s still going to be cold. Fingers crossed spring comes soon!

Out there on a Wednesday night

It’s looks like the cold weather is about to hit SE23 tonight, minus 4 or what? We suggest whacking the heating up and chilling out with the mix below recommended to us by our good friend Marc B.

It’s a very tripped out hour from Biscuit (Good Morning Tapes) for the Twin Womb radio show on Noods Radio (Bristol) from December last year. God knows what you’d call it but once you immerse yourself into it it’s serious stuff. One for the headphones crew!

More on Good Morning Tapes here and on Noods Radio (who have a plethora of great shows) here.

Some plants are softies some plants are hardy

On Wednesday morning the weather weren’t too bad so we put out the tray of sweet peas and tomato seedlings and all the other stuff we’ve got on the go on the kitchen windowsill to give them a taste of the outside world of SE23.

This process called “hardening off” allows the plants to get used to the change of temperatures outside compared to the relatively controlled conditions of our kitchen windowsill. There’s a very good chance if you just plonked a plant outdoors without any hardening off that would give it a right old shock thus checking its growth and it may even possibly keel over depending how much the contrast is.

We’re a tad early on doing this as it’s still nowhere near the climate you can be putting out plants like these. When the weather gets a bit milder we’ll stick them out on good days and take them in at night for a week or two until conditions are right for a permanent move. More on “Hardening off” here.

As another example of impatient gardeners we sowed some wild flower seeds in the strange bed behind the decking. Spot the old kitchen clock, the champagne box which magically appeared on our doorstep overnight years ago and fence post footings which should be covered over.

And also this week this tune from many moons ago from Tranquility Bass (think we originally  heard it on Patrick Forge on KISS)  popped up a couple of times in our head this so it has to be put up now.

We’ve heard it’s going to be a nice weekend by the way!

Living on the frontline

Prompted by our good friend Scarlett’s reply on “I’m going to wash that tarp right out of my hair” here’s a pictorial update of one of my favourite local front gardens. It’s different from the norm but one that delivers the goods. As this picture was taken clandestinely at 7.30am this morning, it doesn’t really do it justice but you get the idea!