Before breakfast, I’m standing by the window, trying not to think about the news, wondering about the day ahead. And then suddenly there’s Mr and Mrs Bullfinch feasting in the Geranium phaeum. The black flowers (dark red really) are now positively flaunting their seeds.
Mrs Bullfinch has a gravity defying upside down hold on a stem that looks far too slender to hold her weight.
It’s a great sight. A better start to the day than angry tweets of politiciajns ignoring what the heatwave means. Forget the news, for now anyway.
We’re no longer filling the bird feeders through the summer and have been missing the close-up view of so many visiting birds. Bullfinches were among the regulars in the spring, along with robins, blackbirds, goldfinches, siskins, tits, tree creepers and even a tiny goldcrest. Last year we watched a mother chaffinch feeding her fledglings one by one, lined up patiently on a branch of the silver birch just outside the kitchen. So it’s reassuring to see the garden is now providing home-grown food. Lots of it.
There’s a wren hopping down the garden path, blue tits finding something to eat in the wild rose hedge. Opportunist magpies and pigeons ready to mop up any spillings. And more food to come. Huge thistles, foxgloves and pillars of Verbascum just about to burst into flower.
After breakfast and a shopping trip into Kinross I return to find many more eager young things. School children are here for a one-off ‘Forest School’ organised by the wonderfully imaginative community artist Laura Frood through the Forth Rivers Trust project. They’re an enterprising bunch. Project officer Clara Schade-Poulsen has been here before in the worst of extreme weather as part of a hedge-laying demonstration during Storm Chandra in January (which reminds me, I must start researching the history of local hedges for that article I promised Clara).
Today the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the children seem to be loving every minute and although temperatures are rising rapidly they can find cool breezes and shade among the trees. Climate change makes an impact in all seasons.
“Are there any crocodiles?”
It’s another sight for sore eyes. Children in hi-vis jackets bursting with energy and ready for adventure in the woodland clearing. What are they looking forward to? Making mud pies! Painting stones! Looking for fish in the pond! Games inspired by childhood memories of long ago.
“Are there any crocodiles?” Asks a boy wide-eyed by the pond. No (though with this heat who knows) but he’s pretty impressed to hear about the otters. “That’s nice,” he says.
You’ll have to take my word for the bullfinches (we really must get a window camera). And, for now, you’ll just have to picture this. When the school group was ready to leave I asked if we might have a photo for the Pond Cottage record (back of the heads only). I didn’t have my phone to hand so Laura took the picture of the school kids lining up for their teachers, all of them shooting their hands in the air waving and shouting “Thank you, we had a lovely time.”
Thank you Primary 5, teachers and drivers. Please come again.
PS. More to follow with Laura’s pictures of the adventures in the far clearing where wildlife comes out to play at night.
Flashback Stories that helped to inspire new mud pies and stone painting
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