The latest #DailyExercise Walks

Crafty Green Boyfriend and I continue our #DailyExercise through a small local park and two nearby cemeteries. Yesterday it was beautifully sunny and several small tortoiseshell butterflies were flying around. Crafty Green Boyfriend managed to capture some of them on camera, here's one of the photos - if you look carefully to the right of the butterfly, you may see a small hoverfly that we didn't even notice until we looked at the photos! (The Hoverfly UK Facebook group identified this as a Platycheirus sp.)

More unexpectedly, we found this bee fly! (Click on the image to enlarge it).

Bee flies resemble bees, and have long proboscises (feeding organs) that are used to feed on nectar. This individual is Bombylius major, whose larvae parasitise solitary bees. You can find out more about bee flies in this article on the Discover Wildlife site).

We also saw some solitary bees, including this one in the park

And we've continued to observe the horse chestnut leaves unfold

Lovely to see the daisies in bloom, a very common flower, but always so cheerful

and many more of them to come into bloom I think

We have started putting out some sunflower seeds to attract birds and already the blue tits are coming down to take advantage of this

and the blackcaps have arrived, I heard the first one of the season singing today, alongside the robins, chiffchaffs and wrens.

We did the same walk today, it was sunny again and we saw lots of butterflies in one of the cemeteries, including this beautiful peacock

In the same cemetery we saw this beautiful great spotted woodpecker, which we had previously only heard drumming (click on the photo to enlarge it)

and we were surprised to see this pheasant, looking beautiful in the bright sunshine

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The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. Though there are suggestions that the privilege of outdoor exercise may be removed because of the actions of some people who have been gathering in greenspaces without paying any attention to the need for proper social distancing. (You may be interested in this interesting article about the new politics emerging over the management of public spaces.)

Repaired Tote bag

I finally got round to repairing this bag! The original handles were damaged beyond repair (I assume, I was given the bag with no handles and it was clear that there had been handles!) and I had been thinking for a few weeks what to do. I thought of making it into a cushio cover but the dimensions aren't quite right. Then i had to work out what would be best to use to make new handles and I rejected a couple of options for not being strong enough or not being long enough. I settled on this khaki coloured belt, which I cut into two and sewed onto the main part of the bag. It was quite a task as the bag fabric is very thick. So the sewing isn't particularly elegant but it looks good from a distance and will hopefully prove to be a serviceable bag!

And here is the amarylis as it looks today

Unfolding leaves and petals

One of the advantages of being confined to a limited range of places for our #DailyExercise during these times of COVID_19 is that we get the chance to watch individual trees unfurl their leaves. I've been particularly concentrating on this horse chestnut in one of the cemeteries we walk through.

Here are a selection of the unfurling leaves as they were on 1st April 

and here they are when we saw them yesterday

and today

Meanwhile we have an amarylis on the windowledge in our living room and this is how it looked on 1 April

this is how it looked the day before yesterday

and here it is yesterday

and finally today

We also noted today that the ash trees flowers are in bud in the local cemetery, you can also see some of the very characteristic block leaf buds in this photo

What signs of Spring are you seeing in your gardens or on your DailyExercise?

More #Daily Exercise in the Times of COVID-19

The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating. Though there are suggestions that the privilege of outdoor exercise may be removed because of the actions of some people who have been gathering in greenspaces without paying any attention to the need for proper social distancing.

Crafty Green Boyfriend and I continue our #DailyExercise through a small local park and two nearby cemeteries.

Today we were delighted to see this cream spot ladybird

Several bees were flying around, including this queen white / buff tailed bumblebee who was searching for a nest site

and the speedwells look beautiful at the moment (there are several species of speedwell in the UK, but I'm afraid I'm not very good at distinguishing them and can't say which species this is) 

the dandelions are beautifully in bloom too though the hoverfly in this photo isn't clear enough to identify to species level 

Dandelions are really important plants for pollinators, so if you have some in your garden, why not leave them for the bees and hoverflies to enjoy?

What have you seen recently on your #DailyExercise or in your garden? 

Who Lives here?

 The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating.

Today we looked carefully inside this tree stump in one of the graveyards we visit on our #DailyExercise

If you look very carefully you may be able to see a hole at the back, that looks like the entrance to a burrow, who might live in there? Perhaps we'll find out sometime in the next few weeks as we continue #DailyExercise.

Here's a closer view inside the stump, though it's not very clear

Upcycled Greetings Cards

A couple of days ago, I made a selection of Easter cards, using entirely upcycled materials (all the card and paper cut outs came from second hand shops so count as upcycled in my view, though there's probably a more accurate word out there).

Here are the best of them:

More #DailyExercise in the Time of COVID_19

The UK Government is, at the moment, allowing us out for one form of #DailyExercise once a day in addition to visiting the shops (as infrequently as possible), travelling to work (for those with essential jobs that can't be done from home) and medical emergencies including helping those who are self isolating.


Crafty Green Boyfriend and I continue our #DailyExercise through a small local park and two nearby cemeteries. Here are photos from the latest walks

 The horse chestnut buds continue to develop

and the white dead nettle is coming into flower

We were delighted to get great views of this chiffchaff yesterday. Over the past week or so we have heard these little migrant warblers  calling their name from the trees, but this is the first we have seen

Today we stopped to watch this blackbird for a few minutes before he flew off

And the waxwings were still in the trees alongside the park! It seems late in the year for them to still be here, but always lovely to see (and hear!) them though the light has been wrong for decent photos the last couple of days