Today smells of linden blossom.

Today smells of linden blossom.

Sweet waves of perfume stop you in your tracks. It is like following a mysterious woman trailing an irresistible memory of gorgeousness: just out of sight.

For a moment the whole world is bathed in this smell of summer and champagne and it seems inconceivable that this should be cascading from the little flowers hidden amongst the leaves of a tree.

Modest pale green flowers shake the loveliest of perfumes in clouds above our heads and the bees are noisy collecting nectar.

Linden is the German name for Tilea cordata. The English name is Lime, but I prefer the German name as it has no possibility of confusion with the citrus. I also learnt the word early from hearing this lovely song : https://youtu.be/lncPMZz5lxc?si=6r6PQz1VNjZwI3qq

It makes a wonderful tree, that is famous for the deep shade that it casts in the summer. It is also famously long lived and there are ancient individuals of hundreds of years old and some may have been growing for a thousand years, which puts our fretful human span into perspective!

When the tree is cut, the wood is greatly prized by craftsmen and it has been worked into intricate altar pieces, statuary and ornate flourishes of all descriptions across the world.

The pale honey made by the pollinating bees is also much sort after and the dried flowers are used for a calming tea across the world.

Lime tree hawk moth feeds on the leaves and I used to always find one in my moth trap each summer until my neighbour cut down his ancient linden tree.

Luckily there are plenty more about; and they are much needed in our over heated world for the cool shade that they give in summer and the delicious perfume of their delicate, sweet flowers.

Flitting between the showers!

There is a brief window of dry nights between all the rain and I have dug out the moth trap again – horrah!

Here are a few recent lovlies to share with you.

Oak tree tortix – look at the gleam on the wings!

White ermine. King Charles eat your heart out!

Flame carpet. I think carpets take their names from the flat way that their wings sit.

Marbled carpet – self explanatory.

A striking micro moth made large with technology!

Marbled minor – very variable species with the bum of a buff ermine just in view.

This is Porky Prime cat who lives outside and is here enjoying the sunshine on the dismantled light from my moth trap . She eats the moths if she can!

Garden parrots

Some garden birds surprise us. Hawfinches are so brightly coloured and big that they look as if they belong in the tropics.

They are however very much European birds and they are found across the continent and eastward. There are variations of the hawfinch in America and another in China; but the male European garden bird is the most dashingly coloured and striking of all.

The big beak is powerfully like that of a parrot’s and it can crack its way into beech seeds, hawthorn seeds (hence the name) and even olive stones! Here he is eating sunflower seeds and making easy work of them.

This male emptied this feeder in an hour, scattering some to the grass below but eating the lion’s share itself.

The markings give it a distinctly thuggish appearance and there is no surprise that the blue tits and great tits leave the feeder to the hawfinch when he appears. He is often with his browner mate, but my husband didn’t manage to catch her in his lens.

The hawfinch call is pretty dull for such a spectacular bird. It is a little like part of a robin’s call, but if it hadn’t been for my Merlin recording app, I would never have realised that they had been around all year, quietly calling to each other.

My neighbour has a magnificently over-grown garden, splattered with abandoned children’s bikes and a yew hedge that his neighbour has to cut, to stop it growing over the road. Yew berries are some of the favourite foods of the haw finch and I like to think that our pair of birds have nested happily in the thickness, while my tidy minded neighbour sucks his teeth in disapproval!

I don’t want to replicate the rusty bike garden, but neither do I want the weed killed, stone smothered “garden” of my other neighbour. Like everything in life: it is finding the perfect balance between the mess and the moribund!

‘A sign of hope’: why weeds are finally being embraced by gardeners | Plants | The Guardian

Species once view as a threat are undergoing a horticultural reassessment and being hailed for their resilience and beauty across the UK
— Read on www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jun/02/a-sign-of-hope-why-weeds-are-finally-being-embraced-by-gardeners