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SuomiOver the past two or three weeks the weather has been mixed - both sun and rain, and also variance in temperature from near 0 degrees Centigrade to 22 degrees Centigrade:
The Spring flowers are venturing out now and shrubs and trees are well into bud:
The olive tree's winter anti-frost coat has been removed and we have tentatively put in a few lettuces into the raised beds - the real planting will start in April, once the soil has truly warmed and is less wet (it is quite heavy clay):
We have had some amazing sunsets in the last week:
- and we're hoping this heralds a good Spring ... when the soil has dried out a bit we'll then we'll plough the top meadow beyond the pond, ready for wild-flower seed sowing; and we'll prepare the vegetable garden for planting - the markets here start stocking vegetable plants in earnest towards the end of April. We also have our fruit trees ready to plant - they should go in at the start of April at the latest. So, a lot to do in the next month or so!
While we're have been thinking about all this, our wildlife equipment has arrived - the bird box with the high-definition colour camera and microphone in it's roof facing down inside the box:
While we're have been thinking about all this, our wildlife equipment has arrived - the bird box with the high-definition colour camera and microphone in it's roof facing down inside the box:
As you can see, this has been placed quite high up on the side of the barn - soon this will be covered by Virginia Creeper, providing cover and privacy for the box and birds. We also have the Bushnell High Definition camera, that we're placing the other side of the pond, facing towards the house. This camera can operate in day or night-time and is motion triggered - providing still or video pictures. It can be set up in a whole variety of ways, with different levels of sensitivity, range, shot duration etc. The recording is made on to a memory card that we then bring back to the desktop PC in the IT area of the new sitting/dining room and play back to see what has been going on overnight in the garden:
Finally, we have the Magenta Bat Recorder that records the bat calls and converts these down to human-ear frequencies - and can be linked to software that analyses the calls and identifies the bats.
Once we have the equipment up and working and providing some good quality results we'll start putting things up on a new Category of the Blog. We'll also, we hope, start involving our visitors - so they can set up the night camera and record the bats ... and we'll then design a new page of the website to portray what people have discovered. By the way, we have already seen and heard some interesting wildlife in the past few days - a beautiful Green Woodpecker, the Skops Owl, some Red Kites, and, of course, the large community of frogs in the pond have started making a lot of noise when the sun is warm enough!
It is going to be an exciting, interesting year in Nichoir's garden ....
Once we have the equipment up and working and providing some good quality results we'll start putting things up on a new Category of the Blog. We'll also, we hope, start involving our visitors - so they can set up the night camera and record the bats ... and we'll then design a new page of the website to portray what people have discovered. By the way, we have already seen and heard some interesting wildlife in the past few days - a beautiful Green Woodpecker, the Skops Owl, some Red Kites, and, of course, the large community of frogs in the pond have started making a lot of noise when the sun is warm enough!
It is going to be an exciting, interesting year in Nichoir's garden ....
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