Trimming the Ivy.

I'll start with some of yesterday's activities that didn't seem to be appropriate in yesterday's entry.

Mrs TD decided we should try, for a third time this autumn, to mow the lawn. I don't know if you remember the saga, but there were hundreds of froglets populating the longer grass, so herself carried out a thorough search and repatriate mission. After a while she reported that she could find none so I was to start my side of the operation. I had not mown more than a two foot long strip when I noticed a rather bemused and stunned looking creature appear from under the rear roller. I deftly scooped it up and took it to her indoors to show her that I couldn't possibly cut the grass, this innocent animal had escaped decapitation, or even de-anything else, the next one might not be so lucky. Lots of half froglets trying to escape the ravages of the mower would not be a pretty sight; I think I've escaped that task now until we're well into winter.

Today was the less controversial trimming of the ivy, Mrs TD had delightedly told me the other day that she had discovered, while she was doing a preliminary cut, that birds had used a nesting box, the one buried in the ivy that supports the south-east wall of the house. We've never had one of our boxes used before so it was quite exciting. When I had worked my way round that far I looked in, there seemed to be nest material in there so I stuck in a finger to investigate; it made an interesting buzzing noise. I tried photographing the bumblebees as they came out to see who was disturbing them, presumably they decided that I was bigger than them so tried to find their way back in to comparative safety. It appeared that my presence on a ladder had disrupted their perception of the local landmarks as they couldn't find the way home until I moved out of the way.

The task is now completed, at least, the guttering is now clear, but I'll have to go back later, when the buds, of which this is one have flowered, and tidy up a bit. I had tried to blip the comings and goings of the bees with a +10 close-up lens, this merely resulted in a series of black smudges against a back-drop of a black hole so I turned to a neighbouring flower bud fluttering in the breeze; it was not an ideal set-up, but it's the best picture I have today.

Footnote: Bumblebees are unable to carry nesting material so usually use old bird or mouse nests. Moral, if you want to attract bumblebees, don't tidy up old nests.