Happy New Year to you all. Here’s to the second half of 12 Days Wild, and may it be full of exciting wildlife, over these final six days and over the coming year.
12 Days Wild is the festive nature challenge, encouraging us to do one wild thing a day from the 25th December to the 5th January each year.
Further details can be found below
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/12dayswild
My first six days were interesting. I have added the link below, for anyone who has not seen this one 12 Days Wild, some festive Christmas magic
Well, here are the results of the last six days of my winter wildness.
New Years Eve, 12 Days Wild
Starting with day seven of 12 days Wild, and it is New Years Eve.
As mentioned in the earlier 12 days Wild post, the blustery wind had brought down the rest of the leaves from nearby trees. Therefore, I had to get all those leaves out of the pond.
So, I heaped the leaves up around the pond, and left them overnight for creatures to return to the water.
Today, the leaves were scooped up and added to some of the flower borders. Consequently, they will now rot down over the winter and provide some lovely nutrients to the soil.
In spite of some blustery weather and heavy rain, the sunset was beautiful, and many snaps were taken. One of them can be seen above.
I am always in the garden as the sun sets, awaiting my lovely rescue hens to toddle off to bed. Naturally, that takes a while, as they hate to feel they are missing out on anything in the garden.
Night night girls and Happy New Year.
Time for some food and a glass or two to wave goodbye to the old year and welcome in the New.
New Years Day
Onto New Years Day, and what a glorious sunny day for the start of a new year.
Naturally, I spent the day gardening, and my friendly robin was always nearby.
As you can see in the photo, the magnolia tree made a lovely perch to soak up some sun.
I am looking forward to the magnolia buds bursting out into beautiful dark pink flowers in early Spring. Furthermore, the flowers will provide nectar and pollen for pollinators and other insects.
I bought a magnolia for my dear friend, the Cosmos Queen for her birthday last year. Hopefully it will bloom this year for her too.
Back to some gardening in the sunshine and winter warmth.
Obviously, my rescue chickens spent the day helping in the garden, when they weren’t sunbathing on the lawn.
I spent a few hours weeding between emerging spring bulbs. A fabulous task to keep an eye on the emerging bulbs for my spring displays.
Whilst weeding in the sunshine, it was fabulous to listen to all the birds singing their songs. A lovely sound to brighten the day still further.
Day nine of 12 Days Wild
Whatever happened to all that lovely sunshine? Onto day nine and along came storm Henk.
Some torrential rain, flooding, and sixty mile per hour gusts of wind.
Clearly, not a good day to be in the garden, so Favolosa, the greenhouse beckoned.
Once I was settled with a latte, my chickens and Remus Nautilus, my beautiful cat, it was time to delve into my seed boxes.
Naturally, I have several seed boxes and they are all chock full of seeds. I was lucky enough to receive another seed box for Christmas, along with plenty of packets of seeds. Lucky me!
Whenever I delve into my packets of seeds, I try to organise them for ease of sowing throughout the year.
Well actually, I usually spend more time swooning at the photos on the packets, as opposed to much organising, if I am honest! A fabulous treat, to look forward to sowing them all.
Moreover, plenty of dreaming of fabulous colour in the garden once winter has passed. And some fantastic new flowers for the pollinators.
Day ten of winter wildness
Onto day ten and a trip out of my garden to watch some birds in another garden.
My family are very keen birdwatchers and have plenty of feathered visitors in their garden all year round.
I counted twelve bird feeders, filled with peanuts, sunflowers and fat slabs in various areas of the garden.
Consequently, the birds come in their droves for a veritable feast. As a result, the feeders are refilled at least once a day, sometimes twice. Lucky birds!
I saw several blue tits, at least ten of the usual thirty to forty sparrows and a couple of robins during my visit. However, I missed the blackbirds, great tits, jackdaws and rooks which also come for a feed each day.
After I left, the green woodpecker started calling in the field nearby, so I will have to put that one down as a near miss too!
Naturally, I needed to race home to see my own birds. The robin was very vocal, awaiting mealworms, and my rescue hens were clucking to come out of their run.
Day eleven of wildness
Onto day eleven, and I thought I would share some flowers with you. I have never seen honesty in flower in January before. However, it is a welcome sight for some winter colour.
Additionally, it provides food for the bumble bee and red admiral that are also visiting the garden most days.
All the honesty is flowering in the long grass at the bottom of the garden. An area called Stumpy End, due to the amount of tree trunks half buried for the stag beetles and other wildlife.
I also have some white hesperis in flower. A fabulous plant that has been in bloom since May last year. Another flower which would not be blooming in January normally.
In addition to these, the achillea is also sending up a few flowers, white blooms that lighten the red polyanthus coming up nearby.
Final day of 12 Days Wild
Onto our final day of 12 Days Wild and what terrible weather there has been overnight. So much flooding, as the ground is so saturated it cannot absorb more water.
How terrible for those with flooded homes and also for wildlife.
To cheer us up a little, I have shared a photo of Remus Nautilus, basking in a little winter sunshine.
More rain today so another day in Favolosa, the greenhouse. Not much wildlife to be seen through the windows, except the lovely robin munching on mealworms.
Plenty of sweet pea seedlings needed pinching out to keep them bushy, so I could carry on gardening. I was accompanied by my lovely rescue hens who kept me entertained. Or should that be hentertained perhaps?
My lovely friend, The Cosmos Queen, phoned to report that she has a squirrel visiting her bird feeders. They shimmy up and down the bird feeder pole, collecting peanuts.
Followed by some scampering into the front lawn, where the nuts are then buried in the grass for retrieving when needed.
Interestingly, I have read that a single squirrel can bury up to 3,000 nuts in a season, so I hope you have plenty of peanuts to dish out Cosmos Queen.
On that nutty note, here ends the winter and rather soggy wildness of 12 Days Wild.
Sweet Peas
As my mind is on sweet peas, after all that pinching out today, I have added links below for sweet pea options
If you need to get some seeds to sow, they can be sown now or later in spring. I do both, as you can never have too many sweet pea flowers.
Thompson and Morgan sweet pea options
Naturally, my mind is also on dahlias, so here’s a link for those as well. There are some beauties available now for delivery in February.
Click here for Sarah Raven dahlias
I hope you have enjoyed this post and will join me next time. Do let me know if you had any wildlife sightings you would like to share.
My next post will be some beautiful flowers as I think we all need some colour to brighten up our lives. And, to plan for plenty of colour for us and the pollinators after we have ploughed through the winter.
This blog is an affiliate for Sarah Raven and Thompson and Morgan. If you click on one of the sweet pea seed links or dahlia link, and make a purchase I may receive a commission, at no additional cost to you.
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2 responses to “12 Days Wild, into the New Year”
I’ve had enough of winter now. That lovely pic of the sweet peas makes me long for warmer days when hours at a time can be spent enjoying my garden. Bring on spring and summer.
So pleased you liked the sweet pea photo at the end of this one. I thought, after all that rain we needed some brightness. Yes, roll on the spring and summer. 😁