Hard Times

I'd never heard of Hardwick Hall before until a friend mentioned it to us.  It's located not far from the M1 in Derbyshire and is stewarded by the National Trust.  After a scenic drive up to the hall itself the hall and the gardens come into their own.

On the day we decided to visit, the weather was changeable to say the least.  We arrived in bright sunshine and after a cup of coffee and we started to walk up to the hall,  thunder boomed and the heavens opened.  I regretted leaving my jacket at home.

The hall dates back to the 1500s when it was built by Bess of Hardwick, a Lady in Waiting to Elizabeth I and a powerful woman in her own right.  As much as I would have enjoyed taking pictures of the impressive interior the delicate nature of some of the exhibits and the diffuse lighting keep the interior in a protective gloom.  The history of Arabella, Bess's granddaughter is told throughout the hall and illustrates the dangers of being of a royal lineage. Hardwick ended up being her prison rather than a palace.

The original hall was left fall into disrepair once the new hall was constructed.

 The walled gardens are maintained beautifully by a dedicated staff and volunteers.

 The grounds below where designed mimic a wine glass and during the war Hardwick Hall was also acted as an airfield for fighter planes.

Double Vision

A short bonus post this week.  On the first day of July we were hit throughout the day by  heavy rain showers.  I just happened to be getting a beer from the fridge when I looked out of the window and spotted a double rainbow to the east.  The outer rainbow is actually a fainter reflection of the brighter rainbow which is why the colours are inverted.

Meanwhile, over towards the west an impressive cloudscape.

Froggers

 When this post goes up we will have been in our new home for just over a year.  If you are a regular reader you'll know that one of the things that came with the house was a raised ornamental pond with approximately 2 dozen goldfish (dependent on Bob, the neighbourhood Bengal) and a few frogs that have taken up residence.

The pond has been a steep learning curve for us.  We knew nothing about maintaining them. Waterlilies will take over if you give them half a chance.  Blanketweed needs controlling, UV lamps need changing...it goes on.

What has been interesting is watching the annual cycle of the pond.  The fish stay to the depths during winter and don't feed and we wondered if any of the frogs that had survived (again, local cats seemed to like nothing better than to  reduce the population) would return to spawn.

In February, it started to look hopeful with the sighting of a frog at the base of the pond wall.

Then, just a few days later, the first clump of spawn followed.

We were also surprised one morning to actually see a frog laying spawn in the pond.  I couldn't get to close to it as it dove down as soon as I got near to it. Mornings, just after dawn seemed to be their preferred time to lay.

When the tadpoles started to hatch a few weeks later, there seemed to be thousands of them.  They appeared to feed of the spawn cases before they eventually disappeared down into the water.  We would see them occasionally, usually against the weed at the edges of the pond where the green background made them stand out.  It is surprisingly difficult to spot them.

In the last 6 weeks or so, we haven't seen a single one.  Nothing that  resembed a tadpole or a small frog.  We don't know if the goldfish have feasted on them or they have eaten each other, which is something that they can do.  Perhaps some have survived down among the silt at the bottom of the pond.

What we do know, is that the frogs have returned.  We have three that we know of that have made themselves at home.

There are a pair that stick together and a single larger frog that seems content with its own company.

Hopefully this year we have a better grasp of pond management and have added more oxygenating plants and keep up to date with the general welfare of the creatures that call it home.

Now You See Me

It's amazing what you can see in the mist.

On a normal morning, I can look out of the kitchen window and hardly see a spider web. When the mist descends, the effect is truly spectacular.  Dozens, (and I do mean dozens) of spider webs pop into existence.  The gazebo, the hedge, the swings,  any surface where the spiders can attach themselves.  The moisture in the air clings to the delicate threads and brings them into sharp focus.

Of course with lots of spider webs, there are lots of spiders.  Not surprisingly, most of them are the common garden spider.

This one spun a web that went from the edge of the house to the fence - easily six feet.

Apologies for the delay with this post as well.  I've just upgraded my computer so it's taken a little longer than anticipated to get everything back on (the joy of upgrading to a 64-bit system from a 32).

Elusive

The first time I set eyes on a humming-bird Hawk-moth was  around ten years ago.  I remember it was a hot summer and I just happened to spot it hovering around one of the flower boxes.  They seemed to have a particular love of Bizzie Lizzies.  Subsequently, we made sure that we always had the flowers in the garden to try and tempt them in.  We saw them twice more,  always when the summer was hot.  I've not seen one in England in the last five years.

So it was a bit of a surprise to see one zooming around the Fox's Brush in the flower bed  during the last week of October.

They are a thing of beauty, with their long tongues dipping in and out of the flowers.  They move quickly but make it look effortless.  I imagine to keep it's wings beating at that speed they need a lot of nectar to maintain it.

Frustratingly, there was a trinity of factors that conspired to make it difficult to photograph it.  Bad light, a small fast moving subject and a camera focus that refused to do just that.  Out of forty shots there were only these ones that actually were passable enough to put on the blog.

Small World

 Having a smaller garden does have its advantages.  There is of course the obvious reduction in gardening chores (it still feels a novelty not to be cutting grass every week!), but the closer proximity of the plants and flowers show you just how much life is present in such a compact space.  Insect and pollinators abound.  We are certain that under one plant there is a bee hive of some description.  They ignore us even when we are sat in close proximity.

We've been very lucky in buying a house that has had been planned and planted by a talented gardener.  The planting in the garden is such that when one flower display is ending the next is springing into life.  Thanks to this the garden has been thriving with smaller critters.

The pictures below were actually taken at night.  The web was virtually invisible during daylight.  The camera flash managed to show the web and its occupant.