Our garden in Brittany - a sanctuary for birds...

Wow - what an amazing weekend for bird spotting here - I wonder what other people have experienced this year in terms of numbers of fleged birds around, as there seems to be an increasing amount of both Blue and Great Tit fledglings but yesterday was a real treat... whilst taking a break from some gardening I was sat on the grass below our Walnut tree with my camera and within the space of a couple of minutes had the wonderful company of a young family of Blackcaps, followed by an adult Nuthatch and two very fluffy babies, then a couple of newly fledged Robins (they have no colour on their breast but can be identified by the characterstic "bobbing" action that Robins do so well).  All quite gorgeous and if that wasn't enough well, a Tree Creeper arrived - it wasn't the time to start trying to get them on film but a time just to enjoy.... The female Blackbird in the photo was definately enjoying the cherries :-)

I did manage a photo of the baby Robin but not v. clear. 

The Great Spotted Woodpeckers have been very active in the garden and gobbling up all the peanuts that I've put in the feeders - more expensive than during the winter!!  The baby is rather cute don't you think!

I spent most of the day gardening yesterday especially in the light of today's forecasted (correct this time!!) rain, and rain it has done... but to be honest it's great news for the garden as it is desperately needing it and the rain is still pelting down now.

Hope you enjoy the photos of some of the plants out in our garden at the moment which I'm sure will benefit from a really welcome soak today - sadly - I'm sure the weeds will also benefit :-(

Have a fun filled week!



Everything arrives early in our Brittany garden

Since the beginning of 2011, I cannot believe how difficult it has been to find time to write my blog... following my back injury last year where I managed to herniate one of my lower discs I had a good bit of gardening work both here and for clients to catch up on.

In many respects the weather has been very kind to us this year and we've more recently experienced one of the driest periods at this time of year I can remember - until.... this weekend arrived!!  We've had quite a wet day today which has been SO welcome and to be honest would love it to carry on a bit which it's forecast to do but you can never tell from the forecast... even in France!

Everything this year had been early - the Lily of the Valley was almost over by the 1st May when traditionally in France you give bunches of it to your friends and neighbours to wish them well for the rest of the year.  So following on from that everything else has come early too including nesting birds - the quantity of fledglings this year so far has been incredible... loads of Great Tits and Blue Tits and not to forget our regular visitor - a rather gorgeous baby Great Spotted Woodpecker with its' parents!

I can also report that we've had our earliest fledged swallow babies too and more on the way I think!  Despite the reports of swallow numbers being down we seem to have more nesting here this year which is fabulous.

With Mummy!

So cute!

Being fed at last!

Note the little one at the bottom..."Me.. me...what about me?"

I couldn't resist this one of one of the faithful Blue Tit parents - this large family fledged some weeks ago ... just waiting for the next brood to arrive now!  This box has been used every year since this box was put up on our Walnut tree.

The garden this year has done well but with the dry weather was starting to suffer a bit for lack of water - I can see I shall be out there this week getting things planted whilst the soil is damp again and filling in the gaps in the vegetable garden too.

The lovely Rosa Jacques Cartier which a friend gave to me before I left the UK.

Rosa Madame Hardy - another favorite.

This is a beautiful rose and this plant was grown by one of my clients and given to me as a gift - Rosa Sourire Orchidee.

This is our wonderful resident toad - he's set up home among my Box cuttings which had been recently potted on - he'd been burying himself in the lovely compost - I guess he realised how well disguised he was in there...  however, imagine my surprise whilst watering when he climbed out!!

I do hope that it wont' be too long again till my next posting and that I'll have even more to share with you by then, but hope these photos give you a brief update on my garden here... have a great week and much look forward to having some time to rediscover all my favorite blogs that I know I've somewhat abandoned over the last months - I've really missed the contact with other like minded people and hearing all the wonderful stories from far and wide... a bientot! Miranda

Children & the great outdoors...

This posting has been a long time coming and many more will follow I promise.... but first things first!

I've discovered two fantastic books that I'd love to share with you - especially for anyone with children, god-children, nieces, nephews or grandchildren that they would dearly love to encourage outside and away from the dreaded PlayStations and computers only to find that there is so much to enjoy just on their own door steps and all for free!

A great deal of my own childhood was following in the footsteps of my parents and grandparents who were all keen gardeners and lovers of wildlife too and I'm more than grateful for the patient hours that were spent encouraging me!

The two books  - Kids in the Wild Garden and Kids in the Garden are both a delight and are absolutely packed with innovative and imaginative ideas of how to encourage children discover the best of gardening and wildlife along with some great illustrations too. 

If you order them having seen this posting you will be able to buy them at £5.97 each (a 40% reduction on the RRP of £9.95). See details below!

Kids in the Wild Garden gives an amazing overview to wildlife gardening which would be enough to whet any one's appetite on such a subject - I loved the section "In the night garden" on how to discover what creatures visit your garden after dark and another on "What is bad for wildlife" - something even us adults need to be reminded of!  It's got an exciting chapter all on birds and on nesting boxes and how to encourage birds to nest in your garden without spending a fortune as well as how to make a bird feeder out of an old pine cone. 

There is also another part on making winter treats for the birds which given the cold winters we seem to be having is great - nothing like getting into practice in early! Imagine how wonderful it would be doing this and then to watch hungry visitors enjoying such a treat - especially come the autumn again - having said that we feed our birds here all year round and we've never had any complaints!!  All this and much more in all a really super book!

The "Kids in the Garden" book would make a lovely gift alongside "Kids in the Wild Garden" and whilst it also gives some additional but invaluable ideas for little garden projects on encouraging wildlife into the garden it's focus is in the main on growing a wide variety of really yummy fruit and vegetables which children can really get involved in doing themselves and once grown also provides them with some fabulous ideas on simple recipes too - what better idea to get children eating their five a day and more! 

There are so many interesting ideas in here it's hard to pick a favorite really, so I went for the Cucumber page!  I loved the idea of using egg boxes to sow the seed in which can then be transplanted into the soil without disturbing the roots of each plant and how impressive would cucumber pinwheels be in a packed lunch taken to school -this would surely impress their friends!

If you want to order these books please contact Jessica Atkins at Black Dog Publishing via email or by phoning +44 (0)207 713 5097 & don't forget to mention jardinmiranda for your 40% discount!

Enjoy... I know you won't be disappointed!

Very Happy New Year for 2011!

Thank you so much for visiting my blog - maybe for the first time or perhaps you're a regular visitor - whichever the case I really hope you have  a very Happy New Year as we start 2011 - hoping that this year will bring you much happiness, health and prosperity and not to forget - fun in the garden enjoying all the simple pleasures in life that often get bypassed and forgotten!

It's been wonderful to see the array of winter bird visitors in our garden here in northern Brittany - and I thought I'd share one or two of the photos I've taken over the Christmas period to share with you here.  The first two photos were a fantastic surprise - I was out walking the dog today at 10am this morning and had luckily decided to take my camera - still feeling rather bleary-eyed after a fun and rather late night with friends :-) - only a few minutes from our house I heard the frantic tapping up in the trees that I've only heard 3 times in 7 years - that of the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and then tried in vain to get a photo.  It was easier said than done as this species of Woodpecker is very much smaller than the Great Spotted moving around so quickly and drumming frantically into the dead wood of the trees -these were the best ones (not the best but at least it will give you an idea). Only the male has red on his head  - this was a female - no bigger than the size of Blackbird with a small round head and short, pointed beak - the feathers on the back are distinctly barred in black and white - and being particularly shy they're not often seen, so I considered myself very fortunate.

Just before Christmas having only been saying that I'd not seen the Blackcaps this year I happened to look out of the window of the bedroom and spotted this little chap chomping on the last few Crab Apples - this is Malus "Everest" - a smallish sized tree but one that produces lovely blossom in spring and a good harvest of fruit - I must admit I usually leave these on the for the birds.

Another shot I was pleased to get was that of a Redwing - this is the first time I've seen them in our actual garden - they're normally well disguised amongst the piles of leaves in the woodland foraging for the dregs of the apples but this one was a bit braver!

Two days ago I was up in our office looking out in the garden when I noticed a distinct lack of activity in the garden - not a small bird in sight - I very quickly realised why - talk about unsubtle - this beautiful Sparrow Hawk was perched on the roof of our bird table... another moment of having the camera there just at the right time... what a magnificent bird.

This winter we seem to have quite a number of Robins in our garden - this was a shot taken before Christmas whilst we still had the snow.

This photo was also taken during the snow and features a sparrow that looks as if it's dunked his head into a bit of bleach... I've never seen any others quite like it!

As the year progresses I hope to be able to bring you more photos from our garden of both the plants and wildlife and keep you posted on our latest projects as well as postings from further afield as well.

Take care, enjoy the festivities and see you soon...