Rising from the ground

Things have started to happen in the garden this week all the Snow drops are out now and he doffodils are starting to shoot up I took some pictures this evening yes after work! (days are getting longer springs around the corner)I,m really looking forward to a couple of dry days so that I can tidy the garden a little and get it back into some sort of shape. Here,s a picture of Lou,s standing stone I,m in a bit of a quandary I may need your help When i first dug this Stone out of the ground Lou said it would make a great headstone for her grave, then when I put it up on the little hill she loved that too , so here,s my problem I agree with her as a headstone fantastic and as a feature in the garden also great so come on all out there help me decide Lou trusted your comments and so do I

The day of the Siskin

Well I'm back from sunny warm Tenerife, back to a storm beaten garden and lots of rain, however tday its been quite settled and a flock? of Siskins decended on the garden. I took loads of photos of them grazing only to realise ( after theyed left i had the camera set wrong (I can here Lou groaning) so they were all blurred, i did manage a couple of shots of them on the feeder and caught this Coal tit on a bush. Everything is starting to sprout all over the place now so there are some exciting times ahead I cant wait. Oh I forgot to mention this female blackbird giving me the eye when i was in the kitchen

First signs of Life

Just a short post before I head of to Tenerife to visit Lou's mum Sandra who like the Swallow migrates to the sun every winter.
Well winters is still with us heavy frosts now followed by normal North wales weather of horizontal rain,a few days ago when we had a hard frost I took a couple of pictures of grazing Chaffinches and a bonus of some plant life just starting to emerge from the earth first signs of new life this year roll on Spring

Wet and Windy back to normal

Well the snows have finally gone and we have returned to our normal winter weather very wet and very windy.
The garden is a mess after the snow so i cant wit till we get some dry weather to tidy, mind you it hasn't stop the birds we have had the usual suspects plus the first visit for a while by two Jays and by the way they behaved they must be a couple of last years chicks as they did not appear as nervous as normal as the generations go by they are getting more and more bold not flying off when i was moving around in there sight. Also we had a visit from a cute little Coal Tit Lou's cousin Lisa took this picture

Snow free New year

Happy New Year to everyone
The snow has finally left us t had covered the garden for the best part of two weeks, and feeding the birds has proved difficult, the one thing the birds require fat, has been frozen solid due to local temperatures going down to -20 one night however the birds have all come back with a vengeance even the lone Pied Wagtail has survived and still looking healthy.
In the next few days I shall go around the garden and take more garden pictures for you . I've added a snowy picture for you

Snows back for Xmas

Well its back with a vengance snow snow snow
we've had so much snow here in North wales and more expected Boxing day, its been a tough time for all the birds in the garden very hard to give them water as it freezes so quickly. We've had the usual mix of birds though thet seem in greater numbers than i can remember in previuos winters especially Blue Tits , I think they had an extra brood this year. We have got one unexpected bird for winter here that is a pied Wagtail (just one ) that seems to have hung around I'll try and get a photo but every time a get the camera out he flies off ( i recall Lou complaining about that happening to her) she would have adored this amount of now and the NARNIA apearance of the area You All have a good Christmas out there in internet world and I'll post again in the New year Al

The thaw has started

Well I said yesterday I'd go out and take some pictures of the snow covered mountains around us and guess what yep its started to thaw. having said that it is time for a rest after 2 weeks solid I took this picture of Blue Tits and Great Tits on the feeder this mourning and also a mountain picture taken fron the forest oposite the house. Lets hope with the weather improving we will get more visitors to the garden

The Snows back

It does not seem that long since were snowed in but it was march how time has flown its 3 months since Lou passed away and as promised im trying to keep this blog going
We've had the usual bunch of visitors to the garden so far Chafinches, blue tits , geat tits ,Coal tits and of course our favourite the Nuthatch just at the moment i seem to be having trouble uplaoding pictures which is realy anoying but bare with me ill try to sort it. oops pictures have arrived i be better tommorrow i added a picture of Lou's summer house which looks lovely in the snow

I think this one of the robin chicks that Lou spoke about a couple of months ago he's been hanging about he back door step for about a week now or maybe both of them(I'm not as good as Lou at telling the difference)winter has really set in now with the first snow on Moel Siabod which is directly above our house , here is a shot I took this morning of my favourite bird and i think Lou was quite fond of them a Nuthatch
I think I need to work on my publishing skills to get the pics in the right order I@ll try harder next time

Its been 5 weeks now since my lovely Lucinda passed away , I thought it was time to update the blog. First thing to mention is that Lou had arrange her own funeral back in January when she was given only 3 weeks to live this makes all this years post even more remarkable and my undying admiration for such an amazing person grows with every day that passes. I thought this post will be different as I am going to post a picture of her grave in the Eternal Forest near Nefyn in North Wales it is a place with both fell in love with and decided that we both would be buried there, Lou spent many hours there over the the year making sure that every thing that happened on the day would be exactly as she wanted, and I can assure everyone that all who went were yes at times tearful but everybody left with a feeling of well being and all felt uplifted it had happened just as she wished and not many people have that opportunity or the mental strength to do so.
Now for he garden not a lot has happened we had a rare visit ( for this Year) of a goldfinch last month and Lou's squirrel friends are causing their usual havoc.
I promise to post some pix and notes later so bear with me and thank everyone who has sent me messages they all me so much to me and my family
Alan

Its with great sadness that I have to tell that my darling wife Lucinda finally lost her long courageous fight with cancer and passed away peacefully on Friday 10th September. I know she was and is a great inspiration to many of you as she is to me.This garden blog has been the only outlet for her talents that her illness aloud her, in the past the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands or the plains of Africa were the places she would love to go to capture nature at its best, but alas with the onset of her illness travel became almost impossible for her so this blog became her passion. I would like to thank all those of you who have posted comments or emailed her. Where possible in the next few months I will try my best to keep this blog going with just a few post but dont expect the same quality

Again many thanks from me for you support for Lucinda

Alan Manouch

Your Messages

Dear Lucy and Alan

Our thoughts and prayers are with you both.

Love and Best Wishes

Michelle xx Carys xx Carol xx

Your Messages

Your Messages:


Anonymous said...
Thinking of you both, Andy Mac x
24 August 2010 12:56

Your Messages

Your Messages:

Dear Lucinda,
I have got back from an extremely wet Isle of Mull - survived 2 weeks in a tent! Just looked at your blog and am really concerned to read how you are going through a sticky patch. I just wanted to let you know that me and my family are all thinking of you and rooting for you. You are such an inspiration to many people and as you know have quite radically changed my life's direction by inspiring me in my book writing - you will most certainly be number one in my list of acknowledgements!
I really do hope you can start to feel better soon.
Best wishes,
Sue Appleby.

Your Kind Words, Thank You

Your Messages:

Anonymous said...
I have really enjoyed reading this blog - fingers crossed that Lucinda can weather the current storm and keep on with the good work.Thinking of you guys and hoping for the best.XXX
21 August 2010 23:29

Anonymous said...
I was recommended to come here by several of my friends, what a wonderful blog Lucinda, I adore your pictures, you have a wonderful selection of wildlife..I love bird watching and have severel come at my garden....Thank you for you wonderful blogg.thinking of you...Alison...S.Wales.
22 August 2010 21:58

Anonymous said...
Thinking of you all through the testing times!Nick x
22 August 2010 23:12

Anonymous said...
This blog has long been an inspiration to me, Lucinda's knowledge and beautiful pictures always make a fantastic read.All the best to her and hoping for a quick recovery!xxx
23 August 2010 12:26

Your kind messages: Just seen the latest post on Lucinda's blog. Just wanted to pass on my best wishes for an improvement in Lucinda's health & say what a talented lady she is & how her blog is an inspiration to all. Truely wonderful. Found it via the Springwatch/autumnwatch messageboards & I will be thinking of her. Kind regards Rensterdenster from SW messageboards xxx

MESSAGE FROM ALAN

POST: From Alan

I'm afraid to say Lucinda's has become very weak during these past few days and is unable to post. I will update the site with more news if things get worse but I'll pray for a miracle and hope she is back with us posting herself very soon.

Village Show

I can't believe its a week since I last posted, time seems to be rushing by so quick yet I'm not getting anything done. Today is the day of our big Horticultural Show. I have been hankering a little pipe dream of entering this year, with my Carrots, Tomatos, Peas and Potatoes. However, its 6.30am and I haven't even started digging anything up and I know nothing about how to enter veg in a competition. Do you cut the stalks, trim the leaves, polish the pods? So I think for once I'll have to just dream a little longer. I've been so tired last few days that I've been reliant on other people to take photo's for me, mainly my mum and Alan and I am so grateful. Its amazing how much can change in the garden in just one week. We've had Visits from Squirrels (I think this is Squizz). The Woodpeckers have been here a lot even in the horrid rain we've had and to our delight the Greenfinches returned although but for a day. The sunflowers are my pride and joy right now although I have to admit, about 6 feet shorter than I what I had visualised when planting. I'm not 100% sure but I think and I may have said this before, we have a piar of juvenile RedStarts using our front field to hunt. The tail flick is there the red markings are starting to look right, could be another one for the garden tick list very shortly.

Heating Goes On

Its been a grey and drizzly day here in Capel Curig today, even turned on the central heating. Wildlife wise not much to report except for my mum spotting this spotted moth land on her arm as we were walking in the garden. I've never seen anything quite like it really. The umbrellica plants are covered in an assortment of flies and beetles, the sheer numbers of them are quite scary. OH Oh great news, after 7 attempts of growing a cucumber this year I now have one with three yellow flowers on. It hasn't a single leave, something earlier ate that but there are definitely 3 flowers so all is not lost. And finally I spotted with Grasshopper on the steps at the top of the garden.

Spiders Nest

My mum came over today so we had a great look around the garden. The most creepy find was this spider on my Pepper Plant. We noticed the leaves were getting eaten but no snails about but my very brave mother folded the leaves back gently and we finally discovered this female spider. In her arms she was rolling up a huge nursery of baby spiders. I had the decision on weather to leave them and say good by to my one and only pepper plant or should I get rid of them. I decided to pull the leaf off and place it in the wild bit of the garden where they should survive. The wild bit in the garden is full of Raspberries my poor mum slipped on an ants nest whilst trying to reach the juiciest fruits for me. Luckily she didn't get bitten. My Lavender is in flower now, I cant resist running my hands through every time I pass the bushes. My Sunflowers are doing well. My Tallest one has about 10 heads on it and the shorter one which is just about to flower is 10 inches shorter. They must have been different plants as I got them from my bird food mix. Talking of food mixes, my dried Scotch Broth mix peas are doing really really well. I had to laugh at Cheeky the Stray today. He managed to sneak himself into the spare bedroom then got locked in. First we new about it was when I looked up and spotted him on the window sill.