They must have been listening....

Having mentioned in the last blog that the Living Stones would soon be flowering it was quite remarkable this morning to glance at  them whilst tidying the greenhouse and there they were

Living Stones about to flower

A glance around the garden showed the leaves on many plants turning as Autumn is calling them to sleep for the Winter

 Autumn often tests the artists pallette

Wildlife is hanging on. A Migrant Hawker dragonfly was flitting about under the Sycamore trees for a while, a Red Admiral butterfly was plying the Ivy flowers along the boundary fence and a few Wasps were busy on the last remaining flowering heads of the cabbage plants.  On the bird front a new species for the garden- Brambling-  was noted. They replace the Chaffinch in the far north. They are orange rather than pink and when they fly away from you reveal a white rump.  The numbers which visit depend on the success or failure of the Beech mast crop.

There have been  large numbers of Jays about this Autumn - indeed three in the school grounds at the end of last week.  These are Continental birds which have left due to the Acorn crop failure.there.  Flocks of them were seen at coastal locations and in Britanny, France similar large numbers were seen two weeks ago.