Uncategorised

Garden Bloom Day April 2008

Well here we are in April already and after a chilly start to this morning it is definitely shaping up to being quite a different April than last year. We have had plenty of rain, hail stones and some snow – very different from last year which was very warm and dry. Now, I do hope that the weather this April will be much better for nesting birds looking for insects and caterpillars to feed their young. In Scotland we really are used to April showers!

This month I am just in time to join Carol at May Dreams Gardens with a post of what’s flowering on the 15th of the month. Carol mentioned on her post of Blooms in her garden which is in Indiana, USA that her plants are a week behind last year. I hadn’t taken part with a post last year but I did post on the 13th of April 2007 and I would say that the leaves on my Acer could be a week behind too. I see that my magnolia had flowered too. At the moment my Magnolia buds are not near opening. I have to say that the birds are behind with nesting this year too.

This month I have a video to let you hear the sounds as well as see images from my small, very ordinary garden. I have neighbours very close by but with hedges and planting my garden is quite secluded and private. Of course you can’t shut out noise when houses are built close together. This morning was a lovely sunny one with just a light breeze. It was almost perfect to take video in the garden.

I turned on the pump of my small pond for the first time this year (after fishing out the leaves that had fallen in) and started to film. The birdsong was wonderful and you could imagine being completely in the middle of the countryside. Ah… but then from a neighbour’s garden this tranquillity was shattered with the starting up of a styl cutter! I could easily have edited this sound out but I decided to leave it in as I was trying to capture the sounds from my garden today. I stopped filming as I guessed it would be on a while and I didn’t have time to wait.

Later on during the afternoon I returned to a shower of (you’ve guessed it) hailstones once again. It was followed by rain which eventually opened the skies to some sunshine. During this break I went out with my camera once again.

Starting at my sunnier front garden I walked round to my back more shady garden where I have lots of foliage plants. The closer to the back I filmed (I noticed when making my video) the louder the sound of birdsong could be heard. Another neighbour was working in his garden now but the birds were singing once again and I was back by the side of my pond where I started.

Garden wander video, video 2:08 with background music, try 480p quality.

I am glad I made this film as it will be great to look back on now for next month and next April too. Next month I expect that I will not be able to see bare earth in my borders. How quickly the garden evolves at this time of year. This is my favourite time of the year and like Carol, May is my favourite month.

Finally, do remember if you would like to see more flowers blooming in gardens around the world at the moment check out the comments on Carol’s post. It is great that so many people get involved!

The video above was taken in my garden on April 15th 2008.

12 thoughts on “Garden Bloom Day April 2008

  1. The video was beautiful. I laughed when the chainsaw started up. For a minute there I thought you were going to show a tree being cut down.

  2. That was an awesome video and I am glad you made it too! I am definitely busy checking out all the gardens like you suggested.

  3. There are so many exciting things to mention since I was last here, Shirl 🙂

    Great night video of the hedgehog…love the baby 🙂

    I would love to grow wisteria where I am but it’s too cold for the blossom. I can imagine your excitement, waiting for its return.

    Glad the blue tits are making progress 🙂

    The video on this post is lovely. I like how you managed to show so many different areas in your garden and the sound to accompany everything added to the charm of it all 🙂

  4. You do not have an “ordinary” garden as you wrote. Your garden is beautiful even now when your great variety of plants are just coming up and small. It was nice to see your video with music, birds and even neigbour’s chainsaw. That’s real garden life!
    Barbara

  5. Shirl, I just love this presentation. The harpsichord-like music in the background was just perfect. I will look forward to another stroll through your garden. Hopefully your neighbor won’t be working in the garden the next time. It made the video so real though. Your garden is anything but ordinary.

  6. Isn’t it interesting how both are gardens, an ocean apart, are behind from last year. I need to check older records to see if last year was just faster!

    Thanks for joining in again, and always in your own creative way!

    Carol, May Dreams Gardens

  7. Hi there Anna, Tina, Wildlife Gardener, Karen, Barbara, Lisa and Carol 🙂

    Anna – Thank-you! If only it were a chainsaw then the noise would have stopped eventually. Although that would have been interesting if a tree came down during filming! This was a cutter for paving which makes a different noise and it goes on and on. The workmen are still there now 🙁

    Tina – Thank-you! Hope you have had fun checking out the gardens for GBBD. I’ve just been checking out yours. I cannot believe you have tulips flowering at the same time as petunias 😀

    Wildlife Gardener – Thank-you, that is kind of you to say! I have more hedgehog footage but I need to start deleting some old stuff to get space to process it. That’s a pity you can’t grow wisteria – I can just imagine growing on one side of your barn. Yes, I’m glad the blue tits are still with us too but as for progress it is more a case of one step forward and three steps back. This is the first garden video I have taken in a long time. In the past I would walk around with the camera but as you know the processing isn’t forgiving of that. I will experiment with this method of stills again. I loved your frog video and the photos were excellent too 😀

    Karen – delighted to have a comment from you here when I was emailing you during my coffee break from filming! Yes, I thought it made it real leaving the cutter noise too. I have to say the noises from my garden aren’t usually like this. However, as I’m sure you will know, house extensions etc are quite common now and we have had a number around us having this done.

    Barbara – Thank-you how kind of you to say that. I suppose what I meant by ordinary was that I had neighbours on all sides with everyday things going on in their gardens. I wasn’t in the middle of the countryside either but despite all this the plants grow and birds and wildlife find their way here. Although being in a corner makes my garden a little larger than my neighbours’ it is still really very small for all that goes on in it. I suppose that is more what I meant. It is definitely a real garden 😀

    Lisa – Thank-you, I enjoyed making this piece of film. I have taken video from my garden a few times over the years but processing much of it is useless for uploading. The still captures worked much better and I will try this again. My garden isn’t usually that noisy and it now appears that is workmen and not my neighbour that caused the noise and they are still there yet. I’m assuming it is paving that has been lifted and getting replaced as we should get advised if it is a house extension. Yes it did make it real, I just couldn’t believe the timing of it. I only had a short time to take my film. Thanks to you too, as I said above my garden feels ordinary to me although getting new visitors (birds and wildlife) is making it rather special now 😀

    Carol – It is very interesting Carol. I don’t have older records to check but thanks to GBBD I will have plenty for the future! I do enjoy joining in and I also like to do something different every once and a while too. Congrats on all your Mouse & Trowel Awards Nominations – they are very well deserved 😀

  8. Was that a motorbike or a lawnmower? :^) Your Primulas are so beautiful! That’s one flower that I haven’t figured out how to grow anywhere in Northeastern Illinois.

  9. Thanks shirl, I wish I could take credit for the petunias, but they were store bought and already blooming. The irises are all mine. I have post prepared on them I will post soon as these are apparently early irises for here.

  10. Loved the video! We spend so much time waiting to take photographs when the air is still – it’s nice to celebrate the motion instead, especially with the grasses.

  11. Hi there Mr McGregor’s Daughter, Tina & Entangled 🙂

    Mr McGregor’s Daughter – it was neither although I can understand why you thought that. It was a machine for breaking up paving. Oh yes… I do enjoy looking out on to the primulas. Perhaps you could try growing them from seed. However, I bought these plants and so far they haven’t set seed like my yellow primroses have. Maybe they are tricky from seed 🙁

    Tina – What I meant was I couldn’t believe I was seeing petunias and daffodils in flower at the same time. You maybe didn’t grow the petunias yourself but you have still chosen to plant them in your garden so that makes them your plants to me. I look forward to seeing your iris post 😀

    Entangled – Thank-you! You are so right and that’s exactly why I thought I’d post a video for a change. I so agree about the motion which I was looking for but it is a fine balance for processing as too much makes the image all blocky. The best way to see the grasses is by video and I must do this again 😀

Leave a Reply