A welcome return....

Well only 3 mins after writing on someone's blog today of how our little Brambling hadn't returned this winter... I went down the stairs to go and make a coffee and could hardly believe my eyes when I discovered Mrs Brambling happily tucking into the seeds and left over apple crumble that I'd put out this morning... not quite sure where Mr Brambling is...?? We had a loan one last year - just maybe it's the same one as that was a female too! I know these aren't the best photos but at least for anyone who hasn't seen one before it will give you an idea of what to look out for - not to be mistaken for a chaffinch - the breast feathers are a much deeper orange/salmon pink than the rather dull pink of the chaffinch in comparison.

Another new visitor to our Brittany garden....

We seem to have been mobbed by a flock of Greenfinch - there have always been about 4 of them but today they have just kept arriving - about 8 or so at a time along with what I think is a Siskin - the little chap with the slightly striped under-carriage in the middle of the picture... any thoughts? Whatever this little bird is, it's the first one we've had here.




This next picture is fab - I reckon we should run a caption competition for this one... I can think of one or two people this reminds me of!!! Can't imagine what he's saying to the poor little Great Tit - it certainly isn't very polite!!

Loved this picture too - not quite sure that the little Blue Tit underneath has the right idea!

This picture is for Cheryl as she tells me that her Thrush never feeds from the table and more commonly a ground feeder - this one has been feeding from our table all winter!


And finally.....

Signs of springtime....

Walking around the garden and our woodland signs of spring on it's way at last are getting more and more prominent. An exciting season where new life is bursting forth and where bulbs are now really starting to push their way through the recently frozen soil - it's amazing what a quick turn around has happened, when only a week or two ago the soil was so solid with ice I couldn't even get a border fork through it!















Many of the catkins are out on the Hazel trees, our lovely red Camelia bush which we inherited is on it's way with red petals just showing on the buds... I can't wait...

then I spotted a couple of small clumps of snow drops just starting to come into bloom

and then in another shady spot the beautiful little cyclamen...

Further on my tour of the garden the wonderful Daphne odora "Aureo-marginata" - something Graeme & I bought during our honeymoon down in Cornwall when we visited the beautiful Trewidden Gardens near to Penzance. It certainly seems to have come on leaps and bounds since we bought it.

Going down towards the woodland are some of my favorites... the Helebores - this one is Helebore Niger and the usually the first of the Helebores to come into flower alongside this is the beautiful variegated ivy which was totally hidden when we arrived but with more room to breathe is rather enjoying life now...

I must admit one of the excitements for me today was spotting our resident nuthatch starting to peck away at the entrance hole to one of our nesting boxes - how exciting would that be to have a family of nuthatches in the garden... will keep you updated with this, so watch this space!

Not a gorilla to be found in Brittany....

I know this is kind of getting off the topic of plants and gardening but couldn't help but take these shots last week on a very misty morning when I was out with the dog.... hope you enjoy them! It was very atmospheric.... since then we've had huge amounts of rain and lots of flooding around our woods and surrounding fields - another posting is on it's way v. soon...

My top 3 "desert Island" plants....

A fun challenge was set by Shirley of Shirls Gardenwatch in Scotland to consider the three plants you'd take to a Desert Island with you - bearing in mind that plants providing food already existed! This made the choice marginally easier, but was actually incredibly difficult - of course I spent ages trying to think of plants that would give the longest season of flowering or ones that would give interest during the winter months and in the end came up with these three....

I had to have a rose and since being in France one of my favorites - 2 of which we inherited in our garden is Rosa "Madame Alfred Carriere" - it's one of the most prolific flowering rambling roses that I've come across that carries on flowering from early summer right up till late autumn. It has creamy/white blooms with hints of pink and smells absolutely gorgeous!

My next choice is the Oriental Poppy - these don't have such a long flowering period but are stunning and once the leaves have died back, new ones are formed which stay all winter until the new blooms arrive - having quite a good collection of these in my garden I really couldn't imagine a garden without them.... great for pollinating insects too!

My final choice is Camelia sasanqua "Evangelica" which is probably one of the latest additions to our garden - it flowers from late autumn and has only just stopped - it has the most amazing deep pink flowers with a mass of yellow stamens in the middle and gives a real splash of brightness in the garden at a time when very little else is out.

Shirley never mentioned we couldn't take seeds with us... might just pop in the odd sweet pea seed or maybe a few sunflower seeds too! ;-)

A bit of gardening fun for January....

Here's how to join in.... all the information is on Shirley's garden blog - based in Perthshire, Scotland. So take a look and hope you decide to

add your own Desert Island plant choices....

For anyone who doesn't know this blog, it's a real wildlife and gardening blog with some fabulous nest cams available during nesting season for anyone who's interested as well a great collection of photos.

Enjoy....

First sighting....

Very exciting on my walk this evening with Lucy (our labrador) when I caught sight of my first ever Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - really dinky birds - substantially smaller than the Great Spotted - photographed on the nuts hanging on our bird table (in a previous posting). It was possibly just slightly bigger than a large Blackbird - absolutely no red plumage (female) - it's worth pointing out that the males have red plumage on the tops of their heads but no lovely red tummy like the Great Spotted ones. They have a much rounder head with a much shorter pointed beak too! I'd never realised quite how different they are.

Just before arriving home saw a pair of little Gold Crests too - will try and get a picture one of these days!

All iced over...

Out and about mid-morning I couldn't help myself when it came to taking some pictures of the ice along our stream - with the added refections of the trees it was quite beautiful...

A winter garden....

It has been SO cold this past 10 days here in Brittany and in particular the last 3 days when temperatures have dipped to as low as -7 degrees. I begin to understand why certain animals hibernate! All said and done the forecast is showing a complete change in weather on it's way, so maybe I might be able to get out and do many of the jobs I've got lined up in the garden in the near future.

The birds are out in force at the moment making the most of their daily feast - certainly brings some colour to the garden at a time of year when colour is sadly lacking. I thought I'd take some pictures from around our own garden and woodland to share on here...

Another one out of the woodwork!

After rearing a family somewhere in our woodland, December 2008 was the first that I've seen our Great Spotted Woodpecker at the bird table - firstly at the coconut halves and since discovering the peanuts it's been no turning back! Since returning after Christmas I've not seen him at all and then this morning... there he was so attempted taking some pictures through the bedroom window...

Our Nuthatch returns....

Having been up to Scotland this year to visit family for Christmas it was great excitement on our return to discover that the nuthatch has returned to our garden - we had a pair of them that regularly visited the bird table a year ago and I didn't see sight nor sound of them during 2008.... and I've managed to get a few pictures which I thought I'd share on here... along with one or two other favorites of mine... the quality of photos need to improve but as yet don't have a camera with a good enough zoom.... guess I'll be waiting a while for one of these!