View From The Conservatory
Category: Local (To Me !!!)
View From The Conservatory
Was sitting in the garden last evening watching a host of moths working our Buddleia and thought I would try to capture some pictures. This proved to be harder than I expected. Every time I tried to take a shot they would fly away. I tried so often that I began to believe they knew what I was doing and yet they weren’t disturbed by my approach to where ever they were settled. Mind you they weren’t staying settled anywhere for more than a second or so, and their wings were constantly on the go, almost like humming birds.
As I experimented it became obvious that they were taking flight each time I used the focus function of the camera, each time I pressed the shutter release just enough to focus and meter. Then it hit me, the little so and so’s were being frightened by the infrared from my camera/flash set up. As a result the following pictures are the best I managed to get.
I’ll have another crack tonight if they come back. I’ll try manual focus and pre-metering.
View From The Conservatory – Some Flutterbys
Insecta: Lepidoptera : Family Nymphalidae: Subfamily Nymphalinae : Genus Inachis:
Insecta: Lepidoptera : Family Nymphalidae: Subfamily Nymphalinae : Genus Inachis:
Insecta: Lepidoptera : Family Nymphalidae: Subfamily Nymphalinae : Genus Polygonia: Species c-album
Insecta: Lepidoptera : Family Pieridae: Subfamily Pierinae : Genus Pieris: Species brassicae:
Restaurant closure – What a surprise, NOT !!!
Fast food giant McDonald’s has closed its Waterlooville Branch
McDonald’s said it was down to ‘changing trading patterns.’
Far be it for me to point out the obvious but this closure was guaranteed to happen, from the moment that the planners gave their blessing to McDonald’s new Larchwood Road development.
McDonald’s managed to railroad our local councilors into letting them build a new restaurant alongside ASDA at Larchwood Road, Bedhampton. Despite there being objections from the Highways Agency about the extra burden on an already overloaded road system.
From McDonald’s perspective it is obvious what the advantages are for them. They have a new facility with drive thru and adjacent parking, which Waterlooville does not. Being right next to ASDA means a much higher rate of passing trade. Certainly much higher than they could ever hope for from the diminishing numbers of shoppers in Waterlooville. And then there is the drive-thru facility which the Waterlooville branch did not have. All those ASDA shoppers who, being pestered by their kids, will drop in pick up a quick burger tea on their way home.
One has to wonder just how many outlets McDonald’s need in this area. A quick check of their website shows that they have 7 within 7 miles of Waterlooville.
I feel that our councillors have let us down, once again. They are responsible for controlling developments in this area. And yet they failed to see what the obvious effects would be, of allowing McDonald’s to proceed with the development. They should have dug their heels in and said no.
This closure is just part of the ongoing pressure being applied to turn Waterlooville town centre into a residential area while shoppers are pushed out. Squeezing the heart out of this community.
Once again the council planners have failed this community.
Garden Furniture
We got ourselves a new table and chair set for the garden. Just look at the markings when it gets wet.
Birthday Cake – What a Cracker
It was my great-granddaughter Summer’s birthday last Thursday but we had her party today. Here is the cake that my neighbour made.
View From The Conservatory
Well not really. It’s been too hot to sit in the conservatory, other than late at night and then you can’t see anything. In fact the conservatory, at night ,used to freak out my granddaughter because she couldn’t see if anyone was looking in. With the lights on the windows pretty much turn into mirrors.
Anyway, the conservatory, is pretty much just a link into the garden and I just wanted to share some snaps taken this morning. So here goes.
If you have read my post from yesterday, we are getting our garden back in shape after some harsh clearing which also meant the severe cutting back of our rose bushes. We have several roses which had gotten pretty straggly over the years. They had all been cut, more or less, back to the main stem (trunk in some cases) feeding from the graft point. Much to our surprise they are all coming back to bush form at the rate of an express train. So much so that we have our first bloom. And here for your delectation is a picture..
just along from the rose we have a Lavatera which is also busy blooming. This one is in a pot, we have had them before but they don’t seem to like our soil and none survived. But this one is giving us a beautiful splash of pink.
This variety claims to be “Candy Floss” according to the tag supplied by Keydell Nurseries, the garden centre from which we purchased this example.
A first for us this year is growing tomatoes in a hanging basket. One of our baskets is ripe for picking while the other is still in that transition mode betwixt flower and green fruit. Here is a shot of the crop ready for picking so far.
I don’t know the variety but the plants are producing small but sweet and juicy tomatoes.
Last, but by no means least, I present to you a frequent visitor to our garden. No name, no breed variety, not ours.
I had just sat down with a cup of coffee when I saw this black shadow sneaking up into our apple tree. I managed to get in close without scaring kitty into a panicked descent which wouldn’t have ended well for either of us.
Bye bye for now folks.
We Are Getting Our Garden Back Together, Slowly
After a couple of years of near total neglect we are starting to get our garden back together. Last year was such a crap year weather wise and I was so wacked out from work that I really didn’t feel like gardening. They say “You reap what you sow”. Well we are reaping the rewards for all that lack of maintenance.
Like a lot of big projects it takes a relatively small catalyst to get the ball rolling. In our case it was the state of the perimeter fence. This fence has not had any treatment since it was erected over twenty years ago and, apart from taking an outward lean following a storm in 1988, it has served us well.
So we bit the bullet, got a quote and ordered a new fence. Well just the back part which is seventy-five feet long. There is another fifty feet or so, which is in much better shape, but we’ll save that for another day.
Having made the decision we set about clearing the way for the new fence. The contractors would dismantle the existing fence but we thought we would clear as much of the over growth, brambles and ivy, as we could. After a couple of body shattering weekends we had cleared almost all of our side of the fence and I had also made an attempt on the outside so as to give the fencing contractors as clear a space to work in as I could.
I have to say that the old fencing didn’t look quite as bad as I thought it would once it was undressed. I knew the posts were rotten at ground level but apart from a couple of arris rails the timber was still sound.
At this stage we were pretty much ready for the contractors to come and get started although they weren’t due for a few days.
Come the due date and there was no sign and I had to phone them to find out that they had buggered off to do another “emergency” job and hadn’t bothered to let me know. Erection day was renegotiated for a week hence with me grumbling under my breath that should they miss that start date then they would be out on their ear. After all, no money had changed hands at this time. Anyway one week later they arrived and set to work.
The previous photos show the progress at the end of the first day.
By noon the following day they had completed the fence. All was looking good. The shine was taken off, a little, later in the day when my neighbour came round complaining that he had a hole in his fence.
For some reason the guys hadn’t linked my fence to my neighbours, leaving a gap just over a foot wide. My neighbour has a small covered area in the corner of his garden which hid this “gap” from view. Well except that his son could see it when sat in a deck chair. It seems that the new fence has equal spaced posts where the original didn’t. So the guys finished the fence with the new equidistant posts. Out of sight from me in my garden. Out of sight from their boss who didn’t climb over the fence to check their work. Anyway, one phone call and he had them back the next day to complete the job.
Its amazing how big the garden looks now that all that ivy and other green stuff has been cut back. I’ve also cut back a lot of overhanging branches from the trees so we have more space vertically. A couple of trips to the garden centre to add a splash of colour and we are getting our garden back together, slowly.
View From The Conservatory
Couple of snaps of this seasons squirrels who, once again, have proven themselves adept at getting past any obstacles that I put in their path in my failed attempts to stop them from stealing the bird feed.
At Last !!!
“18 months” they said. Then “Open by Easter, 2013” they said. That’s how long they said it would take to reinstate the shops and takeaway following the fire that destroyed our local shopping centre.
Here we are, at the end of June, and the pharmacy has opened. Hooray.
I feel for the staff at Rowlands who have put in a stalwart performance since the fire. The following statement by the News doesn’t really recognise the conditions that they have endured.
Since then, staff have been dispensing medicine from a cramped portable building in the car park of Stake Lodge Surgery.
The “cramped portable building” was really little more than a converted shipping container and working there must have been like being in an oven in the summer and being in a freezer in the winter. And yet, throughout it all, they still managed to put on a cheery face and I for one would like to thank them all for the service that they provided in those less than kindly conditions. I hope they like their new accommodation.
Joy as Waterlooville fire-hit pharmacy rises from the ashes – Local Health – Portsmouth News.
WrAnTz 