The garden is swimming with insects. In the evening a cloud of tiny midges shimmers in a cloud, back-lit by the late sun and then the Blanford Fly is out and about, nipping ankles at dusk. Once the lights have come on in the house the May bugs start battering the windows and moths seek warmth.
The local felines are edging around one another. Pippi was terribly offended when a rather high-maintenance fluff-ball entered our house without an invite earlier on today. Fluff ball was soon shooed away. The night before we had heard fighting, but Pippi came home injury free, so we assume she either stood up for herself or kept out of the action.
The rooks are raucous, shouting and demanding as they fly over head. Blackbirds are bold as they scuttle along the ground. There’s a tit’s nest in our porch, but not in the tit-box I carefully put up. And no occupants, to date in the house martins nest and the swift boxes either.
In the field behind us there’s a horse which whinnies enthusiastically much of the evening. But I don’t know enough ‘horse’ to know whether it’s joy, frustration or just high spirits. No-one seems to be concerned however, so I assume all is OK
In the front garden a bold squirrel sits on the fence, apparently posing for a picture.
So Summer’s here. But for how long?
I’m making the most of it. Yesterday I bought a new water-butt to catch rain water from the drain pipes, and some more bark chip to put down under the yew and along the back edge of the vegetable plot. I trimmed edges and did some weeding, and put the bark chip down. A friend of mine calls this type of gardening, ‘Putting the edges back in’ – this defining touch makes the garden look neat, even when really it isn’t!
This evening I had a small sub-committee meeting. The members admired the garden. I had my fingers crossed that they wouldn’t look too closely.
We are planning a mid-summer poetry and music reading. About three weeks to go.
Then the nights start drawing in.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Yes, tarting up the edges is a good gag isn’t it?
Thank your lucky stars you don’t have coyotes. When the nights turn hot here they howl like banshees all night.
We have a colony of them here just up the mountain from us. The dogs don’t like them at all, quite understandably, they are frightened, don’t go far from the house and pretend they can’t hear them. Quite funny watching the dogs pretending not to hear them, resolutely refusing to twitch ears and fixing the TV with a basilisk stare.
Mind you, just the thing to see off the neighbourhood cats.
Interestingly we don’t have squirrels here, too many eagles I presume here in the foothills.
I have never been able to understand why the windows are not screened in the UK, quite disgusting all the bugs that come in, one of the things they could take up with profit to the householders. I suppose the builders will do anything to cut their costs. Even if you buy new windows one can never seem to get them with the screens built in properly.
I shall never forget the horror of the bugs in Memphis. If you do not draw the curtains/blinds/shutters the whole screen is a heaving mass of crawling cockroach bellies by the hundred at every window, some about 3″ long. The natives politely call them Palmetto bugs, they ain’t, just humongous cockroaches! The only way you can get them to stop laying siege to the house is to have a light on a post down the drive to pull them to that, preferably an electrocuted one! You cannot have a light right next to the door otherwise they roar in by the zillion every time you open the door, total bloody nightmare.
The only thing I miss from the South are the delightful swarms of fireflies, quite enchanting, they used to drift through the trees in our garden in Atlanta like a moving display of Christmas lights.
But worst of all are the depredations of the deer. That you really wouldn’t like one little bit! I have been badly attacked of late, they are felling the other side of the mountain and the deer have been displaced to this side putting pressure on the provenance, hence the raids. Not a lot you can do, when they are really hungry they’ll eat pretty well everything, they particularly like roses and tulips, very yummy! So maybe the neighbourhood cats scrapping are a small price to pay, it could be worse, a lot lot worse!
And get left with a garden full of skeletons.
Yes, edging makes such difference, I agree. Even mowing transform the garden if you don’t look too closely at the borders.
Regarding your rather beautiful feline, Pippa, she sounds as if she is doing what cats do, with confidence. Did I not spot a baby rabbit scenario recently? I think cats are beautiful but they have such dreadful hunting habits. One of the reasons I wouldn’t one, but then my last dog caught mice, squirrels and birds occasionally, but she wasn’t nearly as accomplished as the average cat in this respect.
CO – what a frightening contrast! I mean the cockroaches etc. Nonetheless, a great read!
Christina, what exciting wildlife you have!
Ara, I know she’s just being a cat…. and generally I’m not too sentimental about the kills she makes – but I didn’t like the crying of the rabbit!
Hi Pseu.
All very true, I am sure.
I would not enjoy myriads of kamikaze 3″ long cockroaches hurling themselves against my purlieus either. And the coyotes and deer don’t sound much fun in CO land either.
Whatever, could we just go back to your first paragraph? See this Blanford Fly thing?
Having lived in Wiltshire and visited Dorset, I worked out that you might have meant a Blandford Fly and googled accordingly. I did not remember them and see that they only came to prominence in the mid 1960’s after I had retreated to Caledonia (Stern and Wild).
They do not sound fun and their habit of biting at low level concerns me. We are visiting Oxfordshire and Dorset this summer. Would I be well advised not to wear my kilt and to pack a pair of cycle clips? In your opinion?
You are right it is a Blandford fly – and little horrors they are too. We get them here in Oxfordshire and they generally bite around May June time, usually when one is out actively gardening and disturbing the soil in my experience. The bite is small and often bleeds a little and initially there’s not much reaction…. but then within a few days the site becomes red and inflamed. There are a few folk I know who end up on antibiotics because of them becoming infected.
I wrote about them before
https://charioteers.org/2011/04/21/blandford-biter/
If you’re coming later in the Summer I wouldn’t worry 🙂
JM
or
While on your holiday refrain from ‘disturbing soil’, or other strenuous outdoor activities (gardening ploughing, road digging, etc.) 😉