Whilst walking the dog this morning I saw 3 swallows, does this mean summer's not far away?
Colin
Spring is nearly here!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
"One swallow does not make a summer, neither does one fine day" it wanders off a bit after that but its an apt quote from Aristotle, a clever greek! will that do Colin I'm sure that covers three swallows.
The swallows and martins are flying round the Tweedmill now but not seen any swifts yet.
The newts arrived mob handed to my tiny wildlife pond and eaten all the frog and toad tadpoles, this and another dose of Trich has forced me to move them all in the very near future to a new purpose built home right at bottom of our garden well away from my koi pond. There is no doubt in my mind that amphibians of some sort are infecting my koi with Trichodema and Costia each Spring and the time has now come to separate them as I have just had to dose my pond with PP and Hydrogen Peroxide this week.
(Anyone not sure about using these products email me)
The reason tadpoles are eaten is where they are (or should that be where) at the moment is just too small an area for them to swim in so newts can catch them easily. I'm getting a semi-rigid liner somewhere between 750 and a 1000 litres and put that in ground for them, that should suffice.
The swallows and martins are flying round the Tweedmill now but not seen any swifts yet.
The newts arrived mob handed to my tiny wildlife pond and eaten all the frog and toad tadpoles, this and another dose of Trich has forced me to move them all in the very near future to a new purpose built home right at bottom of our garden well away from my koi pond. There is no doubt in my mind that amphibians of some sort are infecting my koi with Trichodema and Costia each Spring and the time has now come to separate them as I have just had to dose my pond with PP and Hydrogen Peroxide this week.
(Anyone not sure about using these products email me)
The reason tadpoles are eaten is where they are (or should that be where) at the moment is just too small an area for them to swim in so newts can catch them easily. I'm getting a semi-rigid liner somewhere between 750 and a 1000 litres and put that in ground for them, that should suffice.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Found an ideal liner on Ebay semi rigid thats 9ft by 4ft but only 18 ins deep perfect for a wildlife pond but, the last one went for a ridiculous price, almost the price of a new one!. Hope springs eternal though and I'm still bidding.
Its got to be the best time of the year to walk in the woods with the dog as just about everything is either in flower or just coming out. The woods behind Denbigh Castle are a good example with great shimmering rafts of bluebells below and cherry trees in blossom above, there are cowslips and sulphorous yellow primroses spilling down the banks at the top of the old quarry under the trees, swathes of pinky white wood anemone's interspersed with the nodding pink spikes of campion are growing further in towards the centre of woods. Wild garlic or Ransomes is in flower everywhere along the bottom paths where its damp with the tall spikes of "Jack in the hedge" or garlic mustard rampant along the hedge that borders bottom of wood. Both of these you do not walk through particularly Ransomes as you smell of garlic all the way home (as does the dog some days) --ahh its just good to be alive some days though and its the "Pond Visit" tomorrow!
Its got to be the best time of the year to walk in the woods with the dog as just about everything is either in flower or just coming out. The woods behind Denbigh Castle are a good example with great shimmering rafts of bluebells below and cherry trees in blossom above, there are cowslips and sulphorous yellow primroses spilling down the banks at the top of the old quarry under the trees, swathes of pinky white wood anemone's interspersed with the nodding pink spikes of campion are growing further in towards the centre of woods. Wild garlic or Ransomes is in flower everywhere along the bottom paths where its damp with the tall spikes of "Jack in the hedge" or garlic mustard rampant along the hedge that borders bottom of wood. Both of these you do not walk through particularly Ransomes as you smell of garlic all the way home (as does the dog some days) --ahh its just good to be alive some days though and its the "Pond Visit" tomorrow!
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Had a trip to Prescot on Merseyside for my new wildlife pond I won on ebay, its a plastic bathtub, at least thats what it looks like upside down. Its nine foot one inch long by four feet wide and twenty inches deep, perfect for my new wildlife pond. You couldn't keep koi in it as its only just over seven hundred litres but now I have to dig the hole its going in, just the thought gives me backache! Soddes Law prevailed again last night as I had no sooner won my bid at 5.30pm than I got an email for a "second chance offer" on a pond I bid on earlier in week, a 1250l Blagdon pond for near price of the one I had just paid for on Paypal: doesn't it just make you want to spit!. The lady I bought pond from is most certainly a kind and dedicated dog owner, she has a 15 year old diabetic mongrel she brought back with her from Dubai. She said it cost her a small fortune in vets fees while in quarantine, now that is a dog lover.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Up to Colin's for our " Grow and Show" koi Sunday morning, we got to choose 7th in raffle and picked a two step or Nidan Kohaku from remaining four fish left . The quality of the Kohaku on offer was excellent and for £60 a real bargain, UK Nishikoi did us proud. Our new koi has been duly named Halfpenny after the red and white WRU number 15 full back, small but feisty.
After a lot of hard work and changing of idea's and original plans etc my new wildlife pond is in the ground and concreted in. Reason its concreted in as when I viewed it in situ after filling it up, the sides bowed out under the weight of water when just supported by soil, so, I partly emptied it and put in a supporting ringbeam of concrete to get it evenly level all round. I am pleased with the result so far but now I have to flag it round three sides, the forth side I am having as a bog garden for cover for the various amphibians and reptiles that will live there. On the subject of amphibians and reptiles, Cynthia found a grass snake on Friday afternoon just lying coiled and still, warming itself up on the tarmac pathway while she was walking the dog to our village shop. She was trying to get her phone out to take a picture while it was still when our dog Hamish suddenly spotted it and decided to investigate.
The snake shot in to the grass under the hedge like greased lightning,anyone who has seen a warm snake move will know what I mean. An interesting aside to our local native grass snake population is a competitor apparently, its the Aesculapian Snake a European species that escaped from captivity at Colwyn Bay Mountain Zoo in the 1930's and now lives successfully in the wild around this part of North Wales. You would know it if you see it as it's a whopper, more than twice the size of our native grass snake and capable of swallowing creatures as big as a rat, luckily it's not poisonous and anything that swallows rats or grey squirrels for that matter is ok in my book, love to see one here in my garden though!.
Anybody know when Summer will finally arrive ?
After a lot of hard work and changing of idea's and original plans etc my new wildlife pond is in the ground and concreted in. Reason its concreted in as when I viewed it in situ after filling it up, the sides bowed out under the weight of water when just supported by soil, so, I partly emptied it and put in a supporting ringbeam of concrete to get it evenly level all round. I am pleased with the result so far but now I have to flag it round three sides, the forth side I am having as a bog garden for cover for the various amphibians and reptiles that will live there. On the subject of amphibians and reptiles, Cynthia found a grass snake on Friday afternoon just lying coiled and still, warming itself up on the tarmac pathway while she was walking the dog to our village shop. She was trying to get her phone out to take a picture while it was still when our dog Hamish suddenly spotted it and decided to investigate.
The snake shot in to the grass under the hedge like greased lightning,anyone who has seen a warm snake move will know what I mean. An interesting aside to our local native grass snake population is a competitor apparently, its the Aesculapian Snake a European species that escaped from captivity at Colwyn Bay Mountain Zoo in the 1930's and now lives successfully in the wild around this part of North Wales. You would know it if you see it as it's a whopper, more than twice the size of our native grass snake and capable of swallowing creatures as big as a rat, luckily it's not poisonous and anything that swallows rats or grey squirrels for that matter is ok in my book, love to see one here in my garden though!.
Anybody know when Summer will finally arrive ?
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roselanekoi
- Posts: 308
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Re: Spring is nearly here!
Picture of Phil & Cynthia's new koi. Hope everyone else was as pleased with their koi,
Colin
Colin
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Re: Spring is nearly here!
Many thanks for that Colin, it looks even better from that angle but maybe Halfpenny as a name might not be quite appropriate as the fish now appears to have the head and shoulders of a front row prop.
In hindsight the two step body pattern could be a reference to the number two shirt of Richard Hibbard, the WRU front row hooker, but I don't expect a name change soon !.
Time will tell and oh, by the way, I found out from the BBC weather report; Summer arrives on Saturday 25th May, but, it disapears again Sunday and its back to the normal "Wintry" conditions again ie: cold, rain and hailstones, squally winds, ad infinitum.
In hindsight the two step body pattern could be a reference to the number two shirt of Richard Hibbard, the WRU front row hooker, but I don't expect a name change soon !.
Time will tell and oh, by the way, I found out from the BBC weather report; Summer arrives on Saturday 25th May, but, it disapears again Sunday and its back to the normal "Wintry" conditions again ie: cold, rain and hailstones, squally winds, ad infinitum.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
I shall have to find a new title for this posting as the Spring is rapidly fading into obscurity and the Summer is yet to arrive.
The new BBC series of Springwatch is interesting as ever and this year they are based in Wales in the Dovey Estuary and more good news, they finally got rid of Kate Humble!, it's also gratifying in a perverse sort of way to see on the programme this week other folk frustrated by the damned rain! The inclement weather this week has certainly frustrated me as day after day the rain has prevented me from laying the paving flags around my new wildlife pond but, in between the showers I've managed to cut the pavers to shape with an angle grinder. Now I just need a dry day to mortar them in.
My three legged frog has turned up again in my filter sitting on the rim again catching flies and there are quite some flies hatching this last week from filter and also from my pond. Went out last (warm) Saturday evening at 7.0pm to give my fish their last feed of the day and was pleasantly surprised to see a large hatch of Mayflies dancing over my koi pond. I presume they hatched from veg filter as I dont expect they would survive for long in main pond with my sharp eyed ever hungry rudd about. Good omen for me as I went fly fishing on the Elwy with Nigel the following day and we caught two brown trout (and missed a lot) There was a good Mayfly hatch on the river late afternoon but they were the greyish blue dun variety hundreds of them, there were lots of other things whirring and buzzing around, Sedge and Stone flies hatching mainly. Difficult trying to "match the hatch" but good fun.
PS take note
Next club meeting is our place not Farmers Arms
The new BBC series of Springwatch is interesting as ever and this year they are based in Wales in the Dovey Estuary and more good news, they finally got rid of Kate Humble!, it's also gratifying in a perverse sort of way to see on the programme this week other folk frustrated by the damned rain! The inclement weather this week has certainly frustrated me as day after day the rain has prevented me from laying the paving flags around my new wildlife pond but, in between the showers I've managed to cut the pavers to shape with an angle grinder. Now I just need a dry day to mortar them in.
My three legged frog has turned up again in my filter sitting on the rim again catching flies and there are quite some flies hatching this last week from filter and also from my pond. Went out last (warm) Saturday evening at 7.0pm to give my fish their last feed of the day and was pleasantly surprised to see a large hatch of Mayflies dancing over my koi pond. I presume they hatched from veg filter as I dont expect they would survive for long in main pond with my sharp eyed ever hungry rudd about. Good omen for me as I went fly fishing on the Elwy with Nigel the following day and we caught two brown trout (and missed a lot) There was a good Mayfly hatch on the river late afternoon but they were the greyish blue dun variety hundreds of them, there were lots of other things whirring and buzzing around, Sedge and Stone flies hatching mainly. Difficult trying to "match the hatch" but good fun.
PS take note
Next club meeting is our place not Farmers Arms
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Thanks to the surprisingly good weather of late my wildlife pond is finally up and running, all the edging stones mortared in, the bog garden mostly planted up and I have started the process of transferring the occupants of the old pond to the new. Caught and moved 23 newts on Saturday and counted a further 9 in the old pond on Sunday when the water had cleared including two of last years babies. One surprise is I found two toad tadpoles swimming around when water had cleared I also found and moved several caddis fly larvae, easier to see bumbling along bottom now that the aquatic plants have been mostly moved out. There was a few Dragonfly and Damselfly nymphs crawling about plus some other nymph like creatures I'm not sure about and the usual snails but nothing like the last time I cleared pond out. Two creatures noticable by their absence were Argulus and freshwater leech's, they are very good live fish food by the way, the water used to be teeming with them a couple of years ago and now none!. Another casualty of the overcrowding and voracious newts I'll bet.
Sitting by the side of my new pond with a cup of coffee this afternoon I saw a waterboatman beetle exploring the main section in bright sunshine and two pairs of damselflies laying eggs on the aquatic plants. There was also quite a two-ing and fro-ing of small aquatic flies dipping into surface film and there were a few single damselflies zipping about but none of my favourite ones yet, they are the bright metallic blue damselflies, they and the glossy blue/green dragonflies are the very essence of a hot summers day by the water whether it be by a lake or river or even just your own humble pond.
Sitting by the side of my new pond with a cup of coffee this afternoon I saw a waterboatman beetle exploring the main section in bright sunshine and two pairs of damselflies laying eggs on the aquatic plants. There was also quite a two-ing and fro-ing of small aquatic flies dipping into surface film and there were a few single damselflies zipping about but none of my favourite ones yet, they are the bright metallic blue damselflies, they and the glossy blue/green dragonflies are the very essence of a hot summers day by the water whether it be by a lake or river or even just your own humble pond.
Re: Spring is nearly here!
Summer weather at last and it was set fair for our evening social around my pond on Wednesday evening and on cue two Great Crested Newts turned up the night before on a 'pond appraisal mission', first I've seen this year so quite pleased considering they are so rare nowadays and they proudly showed themselves off to our guests (in fleeting glimpses).
Another big mayfly hatch last night over my koi pond and the fish were kept busy eating the spent ones, the damselflies continue to visit my new pond and lay eggs but no signs of the blue ones yet.
The farmer who keeps his sheep in the fields at back of our house also obliged us by moving a dead ewe on Wednesday morning that chose to expire right by our back garden fence. The sheep "popped its clogs" on Tuesday afternoon and due to the hot day I noticed the sheeps legs moved ever skywards as it ripened and blew up with gas but a quick word with a neighbour who knew the shepherd thankfully had it moved in time. The evening went swimmingly but I'm sorry Nigel couldn't make it due to picking 'Little Mo' up from Manchester Airport, I knew he had been looking forward to the get-together. The normal plant swap took place with other members like me are keen gardeners and Sue and Keith did me proud with new varieties of tomato to try which is ironic as Cynthia is allergic to tomatoes and cannot eat them!
Keith was quite impressed with my hand-pollinated Summer Sun cherry tree crop he now wants to get himself one. I must admit that I never knew until I tried that they were so easy to grow especially here in the North of UK but the advance in modern dwarfing rootstocks and new tougher varieties has made it possible nowadays for the rankest of amateurs to grow them, provided you get the right variety that is!.
Must get a new title for above as due to the belated summer finally arriving its no longer applicable.
Another big mayfly hatch last night over my koi pond and the fish were kept busy eating the spent ones, the damselflies continue to visit my new pond and lay eggs but no signs of the blue ones yet.
The farmer who keeps his sheep in the fields at back of our house also obliged us by moving a dead ewe on Wednesday morning that chose to expire right by our back garden fence. The sheep "popped its clogs" on Tuesday afternoon and due to the hot day I noticed the sheeps legs moved ever skywards as it ripened and blew up with gas but a quick word with a neighbour who knew the shepherd thankfully had it moved in time. The evening went swimmingly but I'm sorry Nigel couldn't make it due to picking 'Little Mo' up from Manchester Airport, I knew he had been looking forward to the get-together. The normal plant swap took place with other members like me are keen gardeners and Sue and Keith did me proud with new varieties of tomato to try which is ironic as Cynthia is allergic to tomatoes and cannot eat them!
Keith was quite impressed with my hand-pollinated Summer Sun cherry tree crop he now wants to get himself one. I must admit that I never knew until I tried that they were so easy to grow especially here in the North of UK but the advance in modern dwarfing rootstocks and new tougher varieties has made it possible nowadays for the rankest of amateurs to grow them, provided you get the right variety that is!.
Must get a new title for above as due to the belated summer finally arriving its no longer applicable.