Birdwatching report 2008

Weather this weekend was not very helpful for birdwatching. Yesterday very strong wind, today nice in the morning - the above picture was taken abt 10.oo am. In the afternoon winter came - see picture below. I was thinking, that I will not be able to report any birds around - what a strange feeling that would be. But no! I proudly report that I traced some of the feather fellows around. Unfortunately it is very poor result.

It was:
* 3 rooks flying around - happy the wind got weaker,
* 1 great tit - came to birdfeeder,
* 2 european magpie - flying around - they live here and since 3 years I see them nesting in pines.

Magpies especially like to interact with Atomik. Sometimes I hear unusual sounds in the garden, look through the window, and seeing Atomik and magpie on the top of the tree and 'screaming' at each other. Atomik is making 'phhhhhia...!!' and they make their 'kraaaa!!' - it looks pretty hillarious, cos none of them wants to run away...

Interactive fish TV

While some of us are in deep and sweet sleep...

... others are looking for entertainment ...

... trying hard to find it ...

... sometimes they do not mind to get wet and dirty to really feel the thrill ...

... and sometimes there is unexpected company appearing to watch your TV uninvited ...

... sometimes they got to close to you ...

... and you just keep an eye on them ...

... to make sure they feel respect ...

... and just pass you by ...

... but it is alway better to watch your back :))) ehe ...

... if they are good fellows and behave nice ...

... you even let them share your 'interactive fish TV' ...

Winter in the garden

Temperatures gets up and down in 24 hours. Nuts waiting for squirrels are frozen - it was water for few days, now it is ice. Changes are weird and not typical for this season. I just read the forecast for next 6 months and it says there will be no winter - in March we are going to experience temp +20C - let's see.
I just realise looking at the pictures I made in the garden, that my thermometer has both scales Celsjus and Fahrenheit - how convenient and a lot easier to understand what it means that our friends in Canada are experiencing -10F. BRRRR!!!!
If anyone would like to use this picture for own convenience, please feel free to copy.
If you think I shall photograph the upper scale, please let me know in comments.



Helleborus niger - ready to jump up, just when the weather will be better...

Pretty, little shrubbery growing to the hight of 10 cm is still holding red berries - how persistent plant, isn't it?

Gaultheria procumbens - it requires acidic soil, so as it spreads, I improve the soil around it.

Life in the pond has difficult time, when it is completely frozen.

Fishes there need some air, therefore we put this white polysterene water-hole.

It worked well last 2 winters, but look what this melting and frezing of last days has done.

Even if there is sand inside and stone on it (still visible on the picture), ice pushed it out...

Crocuses are ready....

As main garden helper... Aslan has to check also every place that I check...

I wonder what he sees there?

Tree barks are fascinating to me....

Last summer, begining of August I took zilions of cuttings of lavender. After using growth hormone, I placed it in the pot and left it completely alone outside among other plants.

Look, I got 7 new plants - they seem to be fine and they are still outside.

Even if small percent of cuttings survived it is still own produced 7 plants.

That will help me to rearrange part of the garden, right?

Primula denticulata ready to flower soon....

...and tulips...

Even forgotten bulb, that dropped not noticed during autumn works, wants to grow - just without a gram of soil - shows how much nutrition is inside and only ittle water is enough...

Fragaria looks suprisingly green, if you think about fragaria. This one is evergreen and flowers almost 11 months. Now little buds are waiting to open...

Chasing spring... ultimate solution - visit at big house plant wholesaler.

This way I found instant spring.

I love this place - I feel like in paradise, especially in the winter it has a healing effect...

...pink (begonia)...

... and red WINTER TREAT ...

City gardening could be full of surprises. Just look: a flowering yucca :) at the winter window of sushi bar...

Winter treats and flossssssss...

Winter came - as you can see at our city train station. Pine trees! Pine trees! They are so lovely - I felll in love with them when I saw them first time.
There is a nice cafeteria at the station in Komorów...

But when it gets cold, like today, you need a treat - right?

What is better than someting sweet?

Do you know what is this thing below?

This is famous Turkish, traditional, sweet halva called 'Pismaniye' { peesh'muh'ni'ye } - it looks exactly like cotton or wool fibers!

But no, no, no, you will not knit warm gloves with it.

You just eat it... yummy.... mmmm...

If you see it somewhere in the shop, try it - its worth it!

Summer, winter, spring, pigeons, cats, seeds and Beenhakker

It is dull and sad outside, so I had a look at summer pictures and as you can see this georgous Heuchera and azalea 'Soir de Paris' look great together.

Fragrance is especially important in the garden, so if there is a choice, I go for fragrant one. This azalea is especially nice, cos of its delicate pink flowers and beautiful fragrance.

Temperature got crazy, our buds - city pigeons seems to be surprised...

... and even the local public green fellows were send to clean the lawns - is it a sign?

Aslan seems to be happy with this temperature change - he is protesting to go out, if temperature is below -5C.

Sorry - for the weak hearted fellows - we have to push him out and still it is not convincing. You push the back out, the head returns - 'snake-aslan'

I had to post this picture above - study of Aslan's nose is in a way fascinating :)

Some time ago, which is over one month, I bought seeds on Polish version of ebay... and look just 4 weeks and they arrived!

They were posted on 17.12 and they just arrived!

Happy me! At least I got them! Red and silver grass, and ophiogon planiscapus Nigrescens - promise of beauty.

Switch of subject on the picture below. It might be interested for some of our Dutch friends, that entire Poland got crazy aver one Dutch guy Leo Beenhakker, who is polish national football team coach since abt 2 years.

As you can see on the picture below he is really appreciated '100 people, that changed Poland' and he is on the list!

Look what happens. Atomic is trying to get my attention while I write about Aslan in my post...

exactly at the moment when I was asking myself 'why there is no nice pictures of Atomic lately?'.

This is going to change soon :)