Making our Meadow Blog

Meadowcam 2 Motor trial 1

Tested the motor Colin has lent me. I managed to get the Stepperbee + working with the power supply and Autostepper software. However when I tried the motor, although it worked, when I wired it up correctly the motor simply moved back and forth. I tried removing wires and when the B/ and B wires were removed it did work but with one of the steps skipped. It also stopped working entirely when the interval was reduced below 60ms. Undeterred I hooked the dolly up and played about. Obviously I wanted to get it zooming back and forth, but it turned too slowly and fact that it wasn't fixes down meant it just jerked about. I did manage to get it to wind up the fishing wire a little bit but then it just started spinning. The other main issue was heat; it was really very hot indeed.

Orchids round three

Just got back from a 4 hour round trip to get some more orchids from a nice chap in Lincolnshire. The woman I sat next to was right: the roads there are rubbish... Collected a green winged orchid, a couple of pyramidal orchids and two dactylorhizas I'd ordered and I treated myself to a bee orchid from his huge stock. Now to stop the slugs...

Swallowtail

I never believed Nicole when she said her dad had swallowtails in his garden...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phVCSUIls4w&feature=youtube_gdata

Composters and squashes

Our triple bay composter one of which has a thriving pair of butternut squashes!

Cherries

Ten kilos of cherries picked by Nicole this evening. Still plenty more to go...

Emerald damselfly

Just saw a male emerald damselfly by the pond. Too fast to get a picture.

Pond and meadow activity

While walking about I noted large numbers of grasshoppers, which stridulated when the sun came out. The pond was a hive of activity and I saw frogs and toads resting in the water and large numbers of smooth newts basking in the warm water, up to 12 at one time. There are numerous nesting webs for spiders. The wild carrots are starting to flower and the ladies bedstraw is just about to bloom, for the first time since we started the meadow. Clearly cutting it all now would be a shame. I will leave along with the pond.

So what is happening?

Quite a lot. There is a small skipper butterfly defending his territory, several meadow browns and a speckled wood. For the first time this year I have seen dragonflies in the garden with a female common darter, a male and female common blue damselfly and best of all a splendid male banded demoiselle. I also counted over 30 species of wasps and bees, although my bad back meant I was not quick enough to get any pictures.

Opportunity knocks

Having completely wrecked my back I have had to take a day off work, not only in the office but also in the garden (well I have manger to sow some bean seeds but apart from that nothing...). Normally this would be immensely frustrating since whenever I go into the garden I only see the endless list of jobs I need to do. Now I feel trully freed from the shackles of my own tyranny and free to observe the delights of my garden.

Meadow pics

The dry meadow and the overgrown path.