Wednesday 16 June 2010

Comings and Goings

With every walk there are now new wild flowers popping up everywhere. It is becoming hard to walk in the pony field as there are so many Orchids coming up, including a group of the very attractive Bee Orchids. They are growing quite close to the water trough so I wonder how long it will be before eight big hooves manage to squash them. We have tried to protect them by covering them with a tripod made of sticks but Tavey seemed to think we had put it there for him to scratch himself on:-)

Another of the 'comings' are the butterflies and moths. Now when we walk through the long grass and wild flowers in the field behind us, masses of Cinnabar Moths, Small Skippers, Blues and some others that I have yet to identify, fly up chasing each other around. Magical. There seem to be far more than in previous years which is surprising when we had such a long cold winter.

Something that worryingly seems to have gone though, are the Bees. We had loads in the early spring when all the Crocuses were 'a buzz' with them but I haven't seen any for several weeks.

Lastly and very sadly another thing that has gone is our lovely old cat, Lizzy, who had to be put to sleep yesterday. She was rather a 'one person cat' and I was that person. Right from being a kitten she would follow me around and sit with me so I will miss her such a lot. However, she was nearly twenty and, apart from losing her tail when a car ran over it, she has had had a really good long life and was loved very much, which is great considering she was born to a young stray and spent her first few weeks of life living under a bush in an old ladies garden. Now she is at rest with her brother and sister in our back garden where she loved to watch the world go by whilst basking in the sunshine.




6 comments:

Lesley said...

I'm so sorry to hear about Lizzy, Helen. I bet she had an idyllic life with you, romping about in the fields and having the freedom to do everything that cats enjoy. I love the photograph of her... what an adorable cat. :) You'll certainly miss her company and I hope that some other lucky creature comes along soon for you to love and be loved by. What would we do without our animal companions?!

I envy you your bee orchids! They're really special. Funnily enough, I've noticed that there seemed to be more bees around during early Spring than at the moment. There must be some reason for it, but I'm not sure what it is.

I hope you have a good weekend Helen. :)

Helen said...

Thanks for your comment Lesley. It is certainly very strange and quiet not having Lizzy around. Normally if I was on the computer she would either be sitting right in front of the monitor, walking up and down stamping on an odd letter on the keyboard or meowing loudly for attention..maybe I will get my blog posts done a bit quicker now:-)

Lesley said...

Thanks for stopping by today Helen. How is your OU course going? I noticed they're starting a new one soon called 'Plants and People'. It sounds really good.

http://www3.open.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/course/s173.htm

Have a good weekend. :)

Helen said...

Hi Lesley...I must admit I have been very lazy with regard to my OU course just lately as, with the good weather, I like to be out of doors. The 'Plants and People' course sounds interesting... I will check it out on their website.

Orchids and Nature said...

Just had a look at your blog I love the Bee Orchids.We haven't found any up our part of the world this year in flower.

Helen said...

Hi David...Bee Orchids are one of my favourites but have only managed to find one before, but this year there were quite a few:-) Thank you for leaving a comment as it has made me realise how long it has been since I last posted. There is so much to be done in the better weather + holidays and wildlife rambles the weeks are just flying by but I really should find some time to update my blog. The Orchid season also seems to have flown by...they really are such lovely plants...I am already looking forward to next year:-)