Fairy dust

Hot news from Chateau L - there is a possibility that the magic fairy may return, at least on a part time basis. We have recently dispensed with the services of our cleaner, it wasn't going well and was one expense too many in the age of austerity - it is not like living is becoming any cheaper. This means that the residents of this fine abode are going to need to pick up the slack, and this includes an opening for the sorely-missed fairy. There have been signs that a return may be imminent. Check this out!

Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall an outrageously long advert for a static floor duster. It went on and on and on, showing every conceivable use of such a duster, with multiple glorious slow-motion sweeps of this thing being dragged across a sea of dust and leaving a gleaming swipe of a frankly unbelievable nature. It then cut to a sparkling blonde supermodel-type housewife looking deeply satisfied with herself as she deposited the used wipe into an immaculate bin. This happened again and again for what seemed like five minutes. It was beyond ridiculous, and I have no clue where I might have seen this as I don’t ever watch television. To cut a long story short I have bought one, mainly because our ailing vacuum cleaner seems to just push dust around rather than actually suck it up. Our ex-cleaner destroyed its predecessor in the autumn, and its replacement arrived right before the building work started. In the face of such a task in all honesty I think we asked this new machine to do things it simply wasn’t capable of. It now emits a suspicious burning smell when used for more than a few minutes, and having attempted to use it on the wooden floor of the loft it seems to make almost no discernible dent in the current dust fest. I cannot bring myself to purchase yet another one so soon, and have instead bought my first ever static floor duster. It arrived yesterday and I spent a couple of minutes putting the handle together and attaching the first wipe to it.

Don’t judge us.

This is from its first use, I simply went up and down the wooden planks in the manner of a lawnmower. I could not believe it. My cynicism of advertisements has perhaps diminished a fraction, for this was almost like the image I had in my mind of the gleaming swipe. I felt like the model as I too dropped my used static wipe in the bin. How it works is beyond me, and it could be that future passes are simply not as satisfying, but given how much our house has wooden or tiled floors this could make a real difference in the never-ending fight with dust and hair. The pink scrubbing brush may be long gone, but the lime green duster could be a worthy successor.

The never-ending Wheatear mission

A top target for my trip to South Africa at the end of last year was Capped Wheatear, and Mick and I devoted many hours to trying to get decent images of them. We saw our first on day 1 in some farmland near Strandfontein, but it was not possible to get close and in any event we really needed to be birding the water treatment works and not mucking about with Wheatears. We did remark on how smart they appeared though, and this thoroughly whetted our appetite for more over the following days. 

It was a tad damp

We saw some the next day as well, again in agricultural land, in the Darling Hills to the northwest of Cape Town. We managed to get a bit closer but the weather was somewhat trying in the morning, and when we returned at the end of the day after the rain and in night light the birds were not playing ball at all. Still, one of my favourite images comes from this brief stint, a bird does not always need to be at point blank range and I really like the sense of habitat - so much so that at the time of writing I am using it as my blog header. This is the one below.

Day 3 was a Capped Wheatear free day, but the next day we really started to get into their territory as we travelled into the Overberg. We spent an inordinate amount of time along a particular stretch of fence line that held a confiding pair somewhere north of Malgas, but try as we might we could not get them to land on anything other than wire or a post. We went as far as putting rocks on every single post for about 200m but the birds simply refused to use them. We had some very close images due to using the car as a hide, and whilst they were not quite what we wanted the quality was nonetheless on the up.

That evening and the following morning we struck gold. On the short-cropped grass outside our cottage at the De Hoop Collection were numerous Capped Wheatears. Initially I spent a bit of time with a juvenile whilst some Cape Mountain Zebra grazed nearby, and later on I found an obliging adult nearer to the main building in the last of the light. Seeing these Mick then opted to spend the following morning having a crack - his fantastic series is here. In his case all previous images got deleted, but I am partial to a nice post or bit of wire and have kept quite a few....

Madrid minibreak

The view from the Templo de Debod SW towardsthe Royal Palace

Last November we went on a family trip to Madrid. I never bothered blogging about it as time was short, but in the depths of January it somehow seems more appropriate. I love travel as you know, and Madrid is a wonderful city that I am beginning to know quite well – I have another flying visit scheduled for February, which is all the more reason to get this one blogged and out of the way. 

Ostensibly this was a trip to visit our old Au Pair, Silvia, who came from Madrid, but in the time between booking the tickets and the trip happening she actually moved back to London. However armed with her advice on what to do, where to go, and crucially where to eat, the five of us had a really nice time. In addition to having been given the best location for lunch and churros, we leveraged modern technology to go on a morning walking tour of the city centre via an Android App that took your location, time available, and interests, and then creates a bespoke self-guided itinerary. This worked an absolute treat as one leg of this tour took us through a park where, binocular-less, I spotted a Hawfinch! Rather than wander aimlessly, we beat a logical path between churches and monuments, and at the end felt we had learned something. Just like when you read a blog post on this website ahem.

Boom!

To be honest it is so long ago that I have now forgotten almost everything historical, but I do remember the food. Saturday evening was spent at a fantastic tapas bar in the Sol area. I arrived first as the advanced guard with one half of the family, and Mrs L arrived a little later with the other half who had been busy during the afternoon. This gave me the opportunity to consume several quarts of wine and beer during the early evening, and then to start again later on.

The interior of the amazing Catedral de la Almudena

"It was this big I tell you!"
"Stop exaggerating!"

The following day we all had breakfast together at the hotel and then went on our walking tour which at its conclusion deposited us at Silvia’s favourite restaurant, Casa Lucia, for a slap up lunch. This was truly excellent, a multi-course extrazaganza of taste. The place was packed, and we were lucky to get a table for five on a Sunday. We savoured it, a proper european family lunch, prolonged and meaningul - they take food far more seriously on the continent as a matter of course. You can find the same in London of course, but only if you are prepared to cough up. In Spain, as with most places in Europe (Western Europe, don't get me started about countries further east!), any place you go does a solid job and cooks properly. Sated we rolled gently back to the airport for our flight back home. As a quick weekend trip it is up there with Rome in my opinion, and it is so easy to do, and flights so cheap, that I don’t understand why I don't do it every weekend. Beats sitting at home or trudging around looking for invisible Grey Wagtails!

Dedication's what you need!

Roy would be so proud, I'm a record breaker! In a last gasp score before the working week arrives, and with it February, I have secured my 72nd species for the patch in January. I am delighted, as for the last week I have continually drawn a blank on my frequent early morning forays to the Park. Today I trudged another seven miles, all the way to the OSW and then a full loop around the Ornamental Waters with Richard. And all for practically nothing - the Ornamentals are looking really quite good having now filled up again but are mostly devoid of birds. As we returned to the Perch Pond I decided to have one final look at the manure pile near the stables, and as predicted by Nick a Grey Wagtail flew up from alongside the heap and over towards the indoor paddock.  Yay!

My alternative was to go and hang around near the Roding for the Woodcock to come out and feed at dusk, something I really didn't fancy very much, so this eleventh hour tick saved me from having to do that and I was able to have a nice leisurely lunch at home avec vin. I will probably now see a Peregrine on the way to work tomorrow and a Snipe the day after that, this is how it goes sometimes. So a big score to top off a productive weekend which saw yet another trip to the dump (goodbye a bent bicycle wheel, a rotten wooden bird feeder, some more rusting tins of paint, and other assorted junk from our now 100% clear and functional shed, as well as some garden waste and the packaging material from our new bedside tables), some more DIY, the tidying of one of the understairs cupboards, and a trip out to Essex to pick up some plants.

Today was as dull as predicted and I didn't take a camera. In anticipation of this I saved this Great Crested Grebe from yesterday. I suspect that's the final photograph I will take in January, it has really been dreadfully unproductive - I've saved a mere 34 photos from the one morning that there was a hint of sunshine. 

Beauty

Today added approximately half an hour of sunshine to the meagre eight hours across all of the weekends so far in January (thanks @wanstead_meteo), to say it has been a dull grey month is rather an understatement. So much therefore for photography...  I took these as one of the kids was doing Park Run. Mmmmmmm.

Islands

I like islands. Even the one I live on, and I mean the UK not Chateau L which is surrounded by a moat and is therefore an island of sorts. I don’t travel much in the UK now that I don’t do that whole twitching thing. I do however visit lots of islands abroad, and in the last few years have been to Shetland, Majorca, Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Madeira, Corfu and Cyprus. It is Madeira I keep returning to due to my love affair with plants.

View of Funchal harbour from my hotel balcony 

The south coast of the island is a series of viaducts and tunnels perched above the sea

Madeira is not only rugged and exceedingly beautiful, it is also a giant greenhouse where tropical plants from all over the world grow in lush profusion. I want my garden to look like Madeira but this is beyond the realms of possibility. What is just about possible however is for the various areas under glass at Chateau L to look like Madeira, at least as far as succulents, cacti, cycads and palms are concerned. The huge numbers of profusely flowering vines is something that I simply cannot recreate, bougainvilleas for instance simply will not grow for me, and various other vines like passiflora and thunbergia also struggle. The biggest issue is the lack of humidity which is just not compatible with a domestic house castle. Succulents however I do just fine with – they probably grow better and more quickly than they do in nature due to the constant supply of water available to them, and this is the principal reason I went to Madeira a couple of weeks ago. Partly it was to harvest or buy a few small plants that are hard to find here or are expensive, but mostly it was to be inspired. That tiny little green thing in that small pot in the corner? What potential does it have if I repot it, or if I move it to a sunnier position? What does it look like planted en masse?

This is a Staghorn Fern. IN true geek fashion I call this a Platycerium.

So for about 36 hours I wandered happily up and down the slopes of Funchal, visiting botanical gardens, parks, nurseries and roadside displays – in Madeira I would pretty much die for just the central reservation of the Via Rapida, which is stuffed full of Agaves, Aloes and Strelitzias amongst other things. Plants that I take the utmost care of and devote hours to cultivate are essentially invasive weeds on Madeira. Seeds that I was delighted to source and carefully germinate in the UK lie discarded on the ground.

The island is blessed with what is my view a perfect climate. It is never truly hot and it is never bitingly cold - frosts are all but unknown. There is regular rain, but rarely too much, and in any event the steepness of the land results in excellent drainage and run-off. Indeed this latter is very carefully managed, with relief channels and deep gutters a feature of every town and street. I’ve never visited in heavy rain, but I can imagine that the island must become a mass of small waterfalls and torrents. In early January it was very much short sleeves territory but with a noticeable drop-off in temperature in the evening. I packed light – very light – arriving at lunchtime on Friday with what was basically an empty suitcase and various bits and pieces with which to protect and cushion plants on the return journey. My first stop off was the Mercado dos Lavradores, where I happily picked my way around the various stalls – sourcing a heliconia here, a plumeria there, a few canna bulbs to add a bit more of a tropical feel to the garden, and few other oddments. I then checked into my hotel and went for a swim before driving the short distance to Ponta do Sol to meet a fellow cycad grower. This is always very dangerous, viewing the plants of somebody who has the proper conditions to grow these plants, and this was no exception – putting my meagre selection of potted plants to shame. I spent a happy afternoon conversing in pidgin English, Spanish and Portugese, discussing species, growth, soils, watering, sunlight and all manner of things that would bore most normal people rigid. I am not normal however, and in my eyes there was no better way to spend a few hours, pottering around plants I know and love, talking to someone who shares that interest in a highly nerdy way. Brilliant. We shared a beer and a commitment to keep in touch and exchange plants later in the year, and then I returned to Funchal and a great dinner in one of my favourite restaurants. Usually eating alone is one of the things I hate most about solo travel, but at the Vaca Negra in the Lido district I felt right at home.

Proteas - another type of plant I cannot grow!

Aloe plicatilis, the Fan Aloe

A large Encephalartos species

No idea!

I was up early and collecting plants before most of Funchal woke up. The Lido esplanade  contains all manner of wonderful plants, and the beauty of succulents is that they tend to reproduce by creating miniature versions of themselves from the base of the mother plant. The sheer number of plants on Madeira means that in order to keep the place looking tidy the vast majority of these baby plants are mercilessly hacked off at ground level and composted. A few entrepreneurs try and sell them, both in Madeira and online, but why pay for something that you can get for free? I weeded a small Aloe here, a baby Agave there, as well as a Senecio twig and a Crassula stem – all of these will root up in my greenhouse in no time at all and in time form plants that hopefully will rival their parents. Then I visited an orchid nursery, for this is a sphere of horticulture that is completely foreign to me and I was interested to discover a little more – if there was ever a group of plants that got people worked up it is these. All I can say is that they are stunning, but my growing conditions in London would simply not allow it. I bought a small plant to try in the bathroom but largely I think I am reconciled to not having a collection of orchids. This is probably for the best.

Quinta da Boa Vista Orchid collection

 

Finally I went to visit the Funchal Botanical Garden. Whilst in my eyes the whole island qualifies as a botanical garden, this is a structured and scientific collection, and so I left my scissors behind – one does not freely take cuttings somewhere like this. Instead I took my camera and notebook, and wrote down names of interesting looking plants in the hope of being able to source seeds or small plants when back in the UK, and took photos of how the exhibits had been structured. Which plants grow together, which plants look great in a display of ten, which look best just as a single specimen. Part of the wonder of gardening is creating a certain look that is all your own, but gardeners are typically always inspired by the vision of other gardeners and I am no different. I already found one of the plants I wanted in Essex, an Aeonium that grows like a flattened plate, and will be heading off there for a spot of coastal birding this weekend followed by a plant pick-up. It’s hard having this many interests, but ultimately very rewarding.

Agave attentuata, or the Foxtail Agave. In this case with a panther in it.

Great White Egret redux

As was verging on inevitable after my expensive twitch I've now seen the Wanstead Great White Egret three times. This morning I discovered it again on a quick tour of the Park before work, fishing on the eastern end of the Perch Pond. As before it was very flighty and soon headed off towards the Ornamental Waters, although nobody is quite sure where it actually ends up as nobody has seen it there. I didn't have a camera as my mission was the mythical Grey Wagtail for the January record-busting year list, a bird that I just cannot seem to find anywhere. It seems odd to be disappointed with a Great White Egret, but that is the danger of counting things. I suppose also that GWE will eventually descend into the ranks of the ubiquitous, as Little Egret did before it. I know some highly ancient birders who can still wax lyrical about their first Little Egret, which seems absurd but that is how quickly things can change. It also happens the other way of course, and more frequently - look at Willow Tit, Snipe, Woodcock and countless other species that were once common and whose numbers have plunged in a matter of decades. 

Here is a photo from the second time I saw it - a dreary morning about a fortnight ago. The amount of disturbance around the Perch Pond was scarcely believable for 8am on a weekday morning so the images I returned with were of it flying around from pillar to post, a scenario repeated this morning and I suspect every morning that it is there.