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Mind Body Plus Me!

~ Musings and Inspirations towards Holistic Health

Mind Body Plus Me!

Tag Archives: Gardening

Autumn . . .

05 Saturday Nov 2016

Posted by mindbodyplusme in Nature & Gardening

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Autumn Colours, Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Natures Beauty

The weather here has changed quickly, from nice very late summer days where the sun was still warm enough to sit out in, into cold days and nights. The beauty of nature is hitting us in the face everywhere you look. The leaves on the autumnal change are field-mapleabsolutely gorgeous. I love taking photos and all the ones I put on this site are taken locally. The last couple of weeks, I’ve been clicking photos every time I go outside, I love it!

holly-treeHawthorn hedges laden with berries, Holly trees covered in berries, if nature was telling us something, it would be saying we are in for cold winter, and the berries are there to feed the birds in readiness of the impending chill.
hawthorn-berries

Field Maple trees have shone with their bright yellow leaves, the Beech with their fiery copper shades, Hydrangeas with their deep reds, and the red leaves of the Rhus tree always look stunning against clear blue skies. The colours are ahydrangeabsolutely fabulous, and if you take your time to look, there is virtually every shade you can imagine out there in nature, truly stunning. Fuchsia late red and purple exotic looking flowers add a delicacy to the otherwise dying back garden; as does the Sedum, and Verbena.fuchsiaWe still have roses flowering and producing new buds. The ground is a carpet of leaves in the most beautiful golden palette of colour, from the Sycamore, Cherry, Beech. The Crab apples are still

DSC01299on the tree, rose hips are huge on the rosa rugosa bushes; I could fill the page with photos, but will pick only a few, and hope you enjoy them too!

Take a look outside, before the colour spectacle has gone . . .  until next year!

Druantia

Our Butterflies . . .

11 Tuesday Oct 2016

Posted by mindbodyplusme in Holistic Health, Nature & Gardening

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Butterflies & Bees, Flowers, Gardening, Nature

 

IMG_1308.jpg

Small Tortoiseshell

On The News yesterday it was stated that nationally our native butterflies are in a definite decline. We do have some beautiful butterflies, and moths actually, which always seem to get forgotten, so to think they are struggling more than ever is very upsetting.

We have a field round our ‘nature inspired garden’ that we leave alone, apart from cutting a walk able path round it. There are a few wild flowers which are self seeded, so 80% grasses. We do not cut this grass, it does its own thing and has established itself into an incredible weave of protection for wildlife as well as being beautiful to look at. We planted some trees and shrubs all producing flowers and berries, again planted with wildlife in mind. During the summer when the grasses are in flower, the soft colours are simply fantastic, from mauve heathery colours to salmon pink, to golden corn shades, really gorgeous, and because there is so much of it, the waves of soft muted colours is truly a beautiful summer treat; and very importantly, it is full of all kinds of wildlife all year round.

There are beds of thistles, which this summer were smothered by hundreds, and I do mean, hundreds of butterflies, moths and bees. I have never seen so many butterflies ever, and not just for a one-day wonder, but for days and weeks, the number of butterflies was utterly amazing. So I am very pleased our tiny corner of the world has helped the butterfly population here at least.

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Marbled White

The reason for the national decline is unknown. The weather did cool right off when butterflies were usually at their most prolific, so maybe it was down to that. Farmers will no doubt get some blame as always. But the bigger picture must surely be looked at when pointing the finger towards farmers. Yes, I am biased, but I am also not a fan of commercially driven farming. Huge fields, the chemicals, the ‘chemically dressed’ seeds, the fast field rotation are all aspects I do not endorse at all. Nor GMO but that’s another subject. I favour the organic, nature based farming. Nature and Mother Nature should be embraced and enhanced, not rewritten and manipulated, it will always win in the end!

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Painted Lady

Anyway, to list some of what we had here this year:

Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock, Green Vein Whites, Marble Whites, Painted Ladies, Large and Small Whites, Brimstone, Orange Tip, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood, Large and Small Skippers. And so many different moths many of which were daytime ones, I wouldn’t know how to identifying them. The above mentioned are what I have decided we had, I am no expert so my identification of some species may not be correct. We did see a Ruby Tiger Moth, which was stunning. I didn’t see this year however, either a Comma or a Humming Bird Hawk Moth. We have a tiny lavender blue butterfly every year that I am yet to identify.

 

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Ruby Tiger Moth

Check out the Butterfly Conservation website, it gives loads of information from identifying to what plants to use in your garden to attract more of them.

butterfly-conservation.org

See if there are some butterfly and bee friendly plants, trees and shrubs that can add to your garden. It would appear both butterflies and bees are in desperate need of all of our help. Besides the sight of beautiful butterflies and the sound of bees completes the perfect summer scene!

Even now, when the summer is fast leaving us, we can still help the hibernating species survive by providing suitable sites, get to the gardens folks and do your bit whilst the last few butterflies take advantage of the late summer sun!

Druantia

 

 

Humming-Bird Hawk Moth

10 Monday Oct 2016

Posted by mindbodyplusme in Nature & Gardening

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Tags

Flowers, Gardening, Humming-Bird Hawk Moth, Nature

Hummingbird Hawk Moth
This is the first summer I have not seen this stunning moth in our garden on the Red Valerian which we have in clumps all over the garden. We have been invaded by rabbits this year, the adults seem to bring in their young and leave them in our garden like using a creche! Consequently, they have devoured many of the plants, red valerian being a particular favourite. So I’m not sure why we haven’t seen these moths, we have still got a lot of the red valerian, but it has been slightly out of synch this summer, so maybe the flowers were not available at the right time of July.

I remember years ago seeing this Hawk-Moth for the first time and was convinced I’d seen a Hummingbird! I have been to Canada and seen Humming Birds there, so seeing these Moths always remind me of British Colombia and the Rockies!

Nature is full of breath taking beautiful things, this little soul is one such gem.

Druantia

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