Once upon a time...
our garden was neatly maintained, pristine, trim and tidy.
Then we moved in.
Since that day in 2015, we've added a pond, left areas unmown, allowed borders to rewild, created a log pile, hung up bird feeders, provided fresh drinking water daily, opened a bee hotel, installed a bat box, built an owl box for squirrels dotted home-made bird and hedgehog houses around, and basically let it grow into a disorderly blotch of untamed bliss.
Our lawn (Summer 2022)
One of the many perks of having a low maintenance approach to gardening.
Gallery of Things we've Spotted in our Garden
Here's our collection of rushed photos, mostly taken through windows that haven't seen a squeegee in years.
A seriously teeny Goldcrest. Very deserving of its ‘smallest bird in Europe’ crown.
Common Frog. Charming muncher of flies.
My favourite garden bird the Bullfinch. This one's stuffing his beak which somehow makes him even better.
Goldfinches.
AKA total maniacs for sunflower hearts.
Blackcap on a random twig.
Our lovely Robin, Nellie!
Herring Gull. (Noisy as ....)
A Great Spotted Woodpecker.
Blue tit hanging around.
Sparrowhawk. (Fast as ....)
Hungry Mouse.
Moorhen.
Obviously we called him Roger.
Jay.
A mesmerizingly gorgeous garden bird that's bigger than you might think!
Bumblebee.
This one's Mildred. Or it could be Betty?
Felicity the Female Pheasant.
Redwing having a wander.
Grey Heron.
Stephen's nemesis and the biggest threat to pond fish and liners, but I just love him/her!
Juvenile Dipper about to dip.
Felicity's main squeeze Finbar Pheasant.
Woodpigeon.
Beautiful, yet quite possibly the derpiest bird in the world?
Dave and Gary at our wildlife buffet.
Worst. Hedgehog. Photo. Ever.
Mr & Mrs Mallard. (Mrs Mallard actually illustrating how to duck).
(We've since made our own paracord birdsavers
that have dramatically reduced such collisions).
Grey Squirrel gymnastics.
Tawny Owl proving our bird feeder works.
Dragonfly emerging from Nymph. Amazing!
Grey Wagtail. (Unsurprisingly good at wagging their tails).
Kingfisher.
At our garden pond.
(Still smiling!)
Try telling me nature's not worth going a bit wild for.
This little lady turned up at our pond in November 2019 and came back nearly every day to hunt for about a month. She returned the following year (almost to the day) to once again fish in our garden for a few weeks.
Realising we also had a kingfisher visiting at this time, we were all ready to remove the fence in case it put her off - until we noticed she was using it as an effective hunting perch along with the above cherry tree branch.
Fantastic being able to watch my bucket-list bird from my home office window every day.
