Did a I see a buzzard?

I recognised a buzzard when I was 3 years old. I can remember it - standing in the kitchen, looking out the window, seeing one and saying "Oh, look, there's a buzzard". My mother can remember this too.

They were frequent sights at home when I was a child, but I haven't seen one as an adult.

So this morning, did I see a buzzard over my street in north east London?

It was already quite high up when I spotted it, getting higher and higher in slow circles.

One of the films I've found on the internet makes me think it might be. But there were dark tips to the under wings of the bird I saw which I can't see on the video.

Perhaps it was a gull, and just the angle of sight made the wings seem rounded? Do gulls circle upwards like that?

Middle of April and water butt already empty

I am watering the pots, some transplanted foxgloves and primulas, and fertilising daffodils that have finished flowering. Most days only 3 cans, weekends 4 cans. But this morning the water butt ran dry.

I had a day off today so breakfast and meditation in the garden, and a nap in my hammock after lunch!

bath towels to hand towels, hand towels to flannels

I am in made-do-and-mend mode at the moment. I am cutting up some holey bath towels, hemming the raw edges, and making hand towels out of them.

I have some holey hand towels too. They will be cut up and made into flannels.

Yellow brimstone in the garden today.

Prickle-free mahonia ticks most of the boxes

When choosing plants for my garden I like colour, insect friendly, food producing plants. I like to get at 2 out of 3 as much as possible.

Living in what used to be Essex (driest county in England with a rain-fall equivalent to Palestine) something that doesn't need moist soil is good too.

Also with a north facing garden, and ash trees at the bottom of my neighbours garden meaning no evening sun, a shade-tolerant plant is a good thing too.

And I don't like weeding round prickly plants.

I have just got from Thompson & Morgan a mahonia - yellow flowers, insect friendly. berries (I have a recipe from the book "The Rurubanite" by Alex Mitchell - hope they taste nice!) and can take partial shade. The variety "soft caress" doesn't have the usual prickles. (The plant sent doesn't look like a mahnoia at all - I hope they haven't made a mistake!)

It does like moisture so it's in a pot and I'll put a drip tray underneath before the summer to keep it as damp as possible.

Ready for spring - stocked up on potting compost

As I am needing more than usual potting compost this spring I have stocked up.

Two bags on my day off last week and two bags today. This is all I can manage in my shopping trolley.

I have to go to B&Q as my local Homebase only has the huge bags. Even at B&Q I get what is available in 20 litre bags. There was a grow bag with peat-free compost, which I would prefer, but 30 litres - I couldn't even lift it!

Saw a frog in my pond this morning!

nasturtium pickle not worth the time and effort

I tried the nasturtium pickle I made last summer today. It was very disappointing. I'll leave it a few more months in case it improves but I suspect nasturtium pickle is for people who don't like anything to go to waste and will pickle anything even if the results aren't up to much. However I feel I've wasted the vinegar, tarragon, etc.

Yellow wagtail (?) near Euston

I have difficulty telling the yellow wagtail and the grey wagtail apart. I thought I had it clear with one book , but now not so sure.

The yellow wagtail is found near slow-moving water - lakes and marshy pastures so I wonder if that was what I saw looking out the window this afternoon while photocopying. There was a bird with a very long bobbing tail with its back to me as it preened. I wondered if it was a parakeet with wagtail-like movements, but when it finally finished preening I saw it was either the grey or yellow wagtail.

I think it is the yellow wagtail as the nearest water (besides the fountain in the courtyard) would be the regents canal which is slow moving water. But my Collins Bird Guide says: "compared with other wagtails, Grey Wagtails has longest tail....Constantly pumps its long tail, and so strongly that whole rear end rocks with it". That describes the bird I was seeing. So perhaps "at times also on lakeshores and slower rivers" is the clue here.

If I can't tell the difference from locaton, I am going to have problems - they don't get near enough and stay still for me to check them out properly, even if I did have my bird book handy.