Birds vs Bully Cats

Do you happen to have a pair of birds that are... just friendly? (The Birds 1963)

I might try feeding the birds this winter as I have never seen any in our garden. It's not entirely altruistic as I read that they will help considerably with pest control over the winter.

The lack of birds (LOB) situation on our locale, is not that surprising, because of the Lack of Trees (LOT) but more importantly, the high feline-count in our neighbourhood. The main culprits I suspect are the pair of Bully Cats that use our fence as part of an assault course. Said bullies were once a sweet-looking pair of fluffy tabby kittens that slept in our tall weeds. They have matured into nasty, starring, hissing beasts, that we renamed, 'Ronnie and Reggie'. Their crimes include chewing the Osteospermums, digging up the Passiflora twice and making the otherwise slow old ginger cat Ollie run-scared. Pitch Puppy agrees that they are pure evil. I know this because Ronnie and Reggie are the only creatures that make Puppy buck on his hindlegs, race from the house skidding and barking "Ro-ro Ro!" to defend his territory.

I digress. Back to feeding birds: I'll put a feeder out with sunflower seeds out, in a place where they hopefully cannot be bullied by the Kray Twin Cats, and join the ranks of 60% of British garden owners who feed birds 60,000 tons annually. Cor, that's a thousand tons per percentage point.






Apparently greenfinch, house and tree sparrows will flock in.

Jack Frost

Don't you just love frost in the mornings? A cold morning used to make me miserable as I didn't wear enough layers years ago, but now the sight of white crispy plants makes me smile.

From inside my warm house.

Bulbs

It's the surprise element I like so much about bulbs while we are still in winter. I'm actually very excited about them arriving in 3-5 months time.

Little purple crocus, early yellow trumpet Daffs, late bloomin' orange centered Narcissi, one huge giant Allium and 10 smaller white ones. When and where will they turn up? I literally don't know where they were planted as this was done by 'the men' who came to spread the tonne of mulch as the garden's final touch, back in October.

2 or 3 have come up already in the sunniest corner. These green spikes, 3 inches out of the ground, will be watched and guarded closely from Puppy teeth. Of course they could be weeds but I'm hoping.

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Shrub # 6 Pittosporum Arundel Green

A pretty green shrub with lots of tiny leaves, in the densely detailed way I love.

However, I am starting to think this one may be filler, unless it miraculously flowers a riot next year. It's a waiting game isn't it.

This Pittosporum is at 9am on the clockface of the garden and we have a second plant at 5pm in a much sunnier spot. They started much the same size so we'll have to chart their progress. The 5pm plant did get squashed by a blown fence panel the day after being planted so does lean a lot. It's currently tied to a stake by a piece of green Christmas ribbon, so we'll see how he does when I take his stablisers off.

Shrub # 5 Griselinia Littoralis

Dixon's Cream.

I have a thing about not liking variegated plants, they seem so artificial and manufactured to me, but the creamy colours of the Dixon's Cream, native to New Zealand are so gorgeous that I'll make an exception.