On a Sunday morning at the end of July, I arrived home to see scaffolding going up on a house down the road. This is a house where I’d seen swifts nesting, so I was really concerned. I had to wait half an hour for the scaffolders to finish, which gave me time to thinkContinue reading “Scaffolding as a call to action”
Author Archives: jilldday
Drinking from Deadnettles
Have you ever picked a flower from a White Deadnettle and sucked the nectar from it? As a child, I did – and I tried it again recently! That’s when I realised not everyone knows you can do this. It’s a countryside thing, as Richard Mabey noted in Flora Britannica. Or at least it wasContinue reading “Drinking from Deadnettles”
Our Wilder Allotment
Today, 14 July 2024, the marigolds are looking stunning. It’s only three months since we took on this allotment share, helping out friends who found the whole plot a bit too big to maintain. There are rules about how much space can be left untended, or given over to flowers. We knew we’d want toContinue reading “Our Wilder Allotment”
Pollinating Peartree: The surprising popularity of the Bitterne Trough
Bitterne shopping precinct is, to be blunt, pretty lifeless. There are a few trees and shrubs at either end, but under the shrubs (seen in the background in the first photo), the ground is pretty compacted, and nothing grows. In March, I was getting increasingly concerned about the lack of flowers for pollinators, so IContinue reading “Pollinating Peartree: The surprising popularity of the Bitterne Trough”
Hedgehogs Return
A few days ago, on a dark February morning around 6 a.m., I opened my front door to see a hedgehog snuffling around the mat in the porch. He or she dashed into the shrubs at the side, but those few seconds were enough to make my day. In fact, it’s made my month! ThatContinue reading “Hedgehogs Return”
Stories from a silver birch
Christmas Day 2023: Day One of 12 Days Wild, the Wildlife Trusts winter challenge to do something wild each day. I started by sitting in the garden in the dark at 7 am with a hot chocolate, taking advantage of the quiet to listen to the birds waking up. On a normal Monday there would beContinue reading “Stories from a silver birch”
Pollinating Peartree: Reflections on Bridge Road, part 2
When I wrote the previous post in early September, I’d intended this part 2 to follow quite soon. It’s taken two months for the handwritten notes to become a blog, but in some ways not much has changed. The photos here were taken in September, but as autumn has so far been quite mild, theContinue reading “Pollinating Peartree: Reflections on Bridge Road, part 2”
Pollinating Peartree: Reflections on Bridge Road part 1
I was surprised to realise I haven’t written a blog specifically about the Pollinating Peartree project since my first post in January 2021. For a while I’ve been thinking that I’d like to do two things. One is to reflect on what I’ve learned, as I think it could be helpful to others who mightContinue reading “Pollinating Peartree: Reflections on Bridge Road part 1”
A Tale of Toadflax
Meet the Toadflax Brocade moth caterpillar, which came into my life on Wednesday, 23 August 2023. They feed on Purple Toadflax, a plant that I first identified on Peartree Green a few years ago, and which is abundant in the alleys close to our garden. This post is about noticing wildlife in unexpected places andContinue reading “A Tale of Toadflax”
A Swift Sandwich
OK, that isn’t a swift, it’s a blackbird. But I think the title works better with ‘swift’, for the alliteration and the alternative meaning. This isn’t a blog post about eating a sandwich quickly, it’s me trying to come up with a title that’s more original than ‘A day in the life of my garden’.Continue reading “A Swift Sandwich”
Dandelion Nature 