Granny's Curls

Granny's curls, Pheasant Berry, Himalayan Honeysuckle, Flowering nutmeg are all common names for Leycesteria formosa. They are beloved by Pheasants and also Blackbirds (Turdus merula).

Both love the dark purple berries that the Leycesteria now carry at this time of year. The sweet berries attract them as they gradually ripen over the next couple of months. They look juicy and inviting, but I have not yet found anyone finding them to their taste. The flavour I can only describe as sweetish burnt sugar. First it seems okay then a sickliness follows on. Try one and see.

Lecesteria formosa is a shrub well worth growing with a graceful arching aspect to the stems, growing up to 6-7 feet (2-2.5 metres). It first produces white flowers followed by the showy red purple bracts and deep purple fruits.

It is very tolerant of most soils, though it likes to be well drained and moisture holding. Sun or partial shade suits it fine, but some shelter from harsh winds is advisable.

There is a golden leaved form around that will need sun to retain the leaf colour.

Curiosity Kills The Pheasant

It's time for the big kill now. In the wood below us they have been blowing pheasants out of the air. The shooting goes on  until Christmas and beyond (1st October-1st February).

 Cock Pheasant

I just cannot see the attraction of killing a slow moving bird, or any bird that is. Does it pop into a shooters head "What a lovely day, the kind of day I want to go out and kill something". A day like that I want to enjoy to the full and it does not occur to me to deprive another creature the joy of the moment.

But the shooting goes on and the daftest thing happens. Pheasants that live up here at the top of the valley where there is plenty of food, disappear. They go off down into the woodland, crazy!

When the shooting stops after a few days a couple may drift back here again, but the numbers slowly dwindle.

We can only assume that they are so curious, instead of being scared, and go to see what all the noise is about ending up as another fatal casualty.

Curiosity kills the pheasant!

Snakes Alive

Digging out the compost heap to prepare the beds for garlic planting, suddenly a rubbery bundle fell out of the centre.

Grass snake eggs

A full clutch of grass snake eggs, full with young embryos. Around twenty six in all , but one got damaged in the reveal.

This set me a problem as I had dug away the compost heap where they had been laid.

 

The interior was soft and well rotted and well insulated from the cold. The only thing I could do was to dig a hole down in the thickest part of the heap to the depth that the eggs were laid. Then lining it with the soft rotted compost, gently place the eggs onto it. I carefully filled the hole to the top with the same rotted compost to protect the eggs. To make sure I also laid a piece of board over the top of the area and piled un-rotted coarse material on top for further insulation, the board spreading the weight.

So now I hope that they will get through to Spring when it is time to hatch out. This area of the compost heap cannot be touched until later in Spring when they should have all dispersed hopefully into the garden.

A salutary warning though to always use a fork to break compost heaps open. The fork tines are less likely to cause too much damage, unlike a spade that would have sliced right through the clutch with more casualties than just the one egg as in this case.