Strawberries and the object of his desire

He is not a popular visitor for most soft fruit growers.

As always the debt of gratitude I owe to my only photographic models outweighs the loss of any blackcurrants or strawberries that may have taken place during this shoot.

I adore working with him, and surely he knows it.

Sometimes he just lands on this rock to show off his good side. Mostly he is swooping across the wild garden or rustling around deep in the fruit bushes. Today he is demolishing strawberries and courting a young one.

Like any old friend, I study him. The lens gets me closer. My every move has to be frozen and quiet. His alertness is a little off kilter today as the object of his desire makes a brief appearance. She is a very young hen blackbird, a lovely speckled brown in colour.

His one effort at romance is rebuked and she disappears. The Blackbird continues on his well worn flight path across the garden and the dish of the day, strawberries, takes his attention once more.

Hen Blackbird is one of my featured galleries at the moment.

Set free in a loose garden

We inhaled the scent of herbs on the soft balmy air. Occasional yelps of joy bounced across the lake as youngsters leapt into the water from the dodgy bough that leans out over the deeper water. 

The Irish feel such deep relaxation in our bodies when the temperatures soar. So we are elated by this evening, warm enough to sit outside under the sky, warm enough to put our feet up, one where we can get the grill out. 

I love your "loose garden" she said.  And loose is a good word for it. 

Loose enough to sway in the breeze, loose enough to shed colourful seeds everywhere, to create dingly dells of stems and blossoms. 

If I were a thrush I too would want to be set free, in a loose garden......

More wild places here

Blackcurrants and Blackbirds

We had far too many and the plan was to make a liqueur. Blackcurrants make a wonderful boozy drink called Cassis, perfect for Christmas, when it should be ready for drinking.  KIR Royale, a mixture of Cassis and Champagne will never EVER be forgotten, once tasted. It's the perfect cocktail at a party for two............preferably in Paris!!

Anyway, the Blackbirds seemingly had a similar notion. As the damp evening drew in, Mr. Big put in an appearance amongst the blackcurrants and SMUG was written all over his face!

To see him drooling drunkenly in the bushes, almost unable to move with the feed of fruit inside him, made me reach for the camera and I even caught him with the evidence in his big orangey gob!

A fair swop I thought.

"You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves"

"You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves"

 from the Wild Geese by Mary Oliver


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With thanks to Grace

Guzzling Bees and Woundwort flowers

So the rain continued to bucket down all through July and alongside the accompanying sea mist, a kind of fog settled on my brain. The days melt into one and soon afternoons blend into night. It can all get a bit grey and vague without sky, and sunsets and the changing light I crave......

One evening I found myself sitting for a while with a swathe of damp Woundwort flowers and discovered that the bees were very much alive and kicking. Their buzzing was infectious and soon I was lost in their world of flitting and guzzling.

Woundwort is another of those beautiful wildflowers considered a "weed" and banned from gardens. So today I am showing off it's delicate beauty and welcoming a big invasion of it in Foxglove Lane.



More photos of guzzling bees and Woundwort here in the gallery

A happy browse in the courgettes results in eye to eye contact......

Had a look out in the undergrowth after recent stormy and wet weather and was so happy to find a summery pair, and it seemed as if each of them looked me straight in the eye! Were they aware of my presence? I like to think so.......

The herbs like me and so I like them.

These photos are of some flowering herbs in the garden right now; Thyme, Oregano, Borage and Fennel. These are some of my favourite plants. The garden soil tends to be boggy in spots and in the summer can also be very dry. This suits herbs very well. They seem to like me, grow happily and so I like them!

All herbs are great and I love turning them into interesting salad dressings, pestos and also salsa verde which is great for fish and meat. For the salad dressing add to your favourite olive oil, mustard, honey and some garlic. For the pesto blend with oil, lemon, garlic, pinenuts or pumpkin seeds, For the salsa verde just add lemon, oil, garlic, anchovies and/or capers and give the whole thing a whizz in a blender. Most combinations work and I think parsley is good as a base.

No I don't ever do quantities, I am such a lazy cook, and for that reason I am not normally a food blogger. I just get carried along by the fragrances and the character of the plants. They inspire and I follow!



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Be a bit more friendly towards the wild things

I know the neighbours despair of my nettle border and my overwhelming gorse mountain but I can't resist including them all in my mixed up wild, cultivated garden. There are so many parts of the country where the verges and the hedgerows are devoid of life. Grass grows, but the diversity that is natural to our Irish landscape has been extinguished. I hate to see those burned patches of ground where farmers have sprayed pesticides. Luckily the immediate boreens around here escape. Most of what I photograph in the wilderness is within a 5 minute stroll of my back door. There are still lots of pockets of this natural beauty in between the lovely formal gardens which now dominate the country both in urban and rural settings.

A combination of hand weeding and mulching takes care of my "garden" proper, where I am trying to grow flowers and pretty things. They have to be protected from the creeping buttercups and the rooty strong grasses, but I am not too fussy about order and grow vegetables, flowers and "weeds" together. Yes I am a lazy gardener and I am pest friendly but I am rewarded by lots of bees, butterflies and other "pests"which make the garden a lively spot! A very chilled approach.......

This evening I am showing off my "garden" and neatly editing out the compost heap and the seeding nettles. Seriously proud!

Blackberries start out as the sweetest blossoms

Blackberries are one of our most universally loved wild foods. As a girl I gathered them and stuffed my pockets only to be reprimanded for ruining all my clothes with their dark juice. To this day I can't resist them and in the late summer and autumn they transform my walks into a slow dance through the fields bending and stretching through thorns and nettles to get the best ones.

At this time of the year the hedgerows are teeming with their white understated blossoms. They don't last too long and it is only since I have been trying to photograph bees that I have noticed how beautiful they are. Bees don't hang around but on brambles they are so engrossed that it gives great opportunities to capture them.

The blackberry bramble is a common plant but few of us have them growing in our gardens. Luckily Paddy loves them and is inclined to leave them to grow through the other fruit trees and vegetables with great tolerance. (We both have a huge tolerance for wild things which most people would just call "weeds") I'm afraid Alan Titchmarsh would not be too impressed. Our poor manicured lawn neighbours down the lane have been offerring us a strimmer which I assume is a big hint to tidy up the wilderness, but they have no hope!

Although I love bees I am still not too good at distinguishing one type from another especially amongst the bumblers. Is this one the White-tailed Bumble Bee? If you are keen to observe them check out your local blackberry bush and for further information see Bumblebee Conservation and Dublin Beekeeping Services websites.