A Bird in the Hand, Not Such a Rubbish Idea, Light Relief & Countdown

Taken from Lynne’s weekly column ‘Green Scene’ for the Western Mail
12^th October 2019

A Bird in the Hand

Sometimes amid all the hubbub going on in the world, something just miraculous happens.  Last week whilst enjoying a cup of coffee and a ‘think’, a young goldcrest flew onto my shoulder before alighting on my outstretched hand. He was more than happy to sit there for well over 20 minutes before flying off.  It was just wonderful.

I did a little research into my feathered friend and learned that goldcrests are highly migratory, with a large influx of birds from the Scandinavia and the near-Continent arriving on the east coast of Britain every autumn.  Exhausted migrants are typically unafraid of humans, and some will land on people, as my little friend did.

In contrast to their Continental cousins, goldcrests that nest in Britain are quite sedentary, and seldom moving far from where they hatched. Bit like us Welsh, I thought.

Once known as the ‘golden-crested wren’, the goldcrest is Britain’s smallest bird and I couldn’t even feel my little feathered friend in my hand, he was that light. The average weight is apparently around 5gms.

I just can’t comprehend something so fragile achieving such an arduous journey across the North Sea, and apparently neither could the early ornithologists.  They thought that the little birds rode on the backs of migratory woodcock or short-eared owls.  And that earned them the old country name of a ‘Woodcock Pilot’.

So not only was I blessed to have such a magical experience with a goldcrest, I have learned a lot about them too.

Not Such a Rubbish Idea

Something else coming in from Scandinavia is ‘plogging’, the eco-friendly running trend that’s proving to be good for the planet too.  Although when I mentioned it to some running friends, they thought the combination of jogging and picking up litter took off in the Nordic country in 2016 and came to the UK soon after.  I’m always the last to hear.

The trendy activity has been named “plogging” as it comprises of  “jogging” and “plucking” (although I also read it was an adaptation of ‘plocka upp’, which is the Swedish for ‘pick up’).

Apparently as well as putting on their trainers, teams of ploggers pull on their disposable gloves, grab a bin bag, and scan the streets and parks for litter along their route. Once the bag is full, it’s deposited in an appropriate recycle bin.

I did a little research to see if there were any Welsh ploggering groups but Google just offered Powys Local Operational Group.  I’m sure their staff would be delighted to be referred to as ‘ploggers’!

You can get more info about jogging and plogging from www.facebook.com/plogginguk.

Light Relief

For me, one of the lovely things about the nights drawing in (apart form being secretly pleased that you can’t work on late outdoors), is outdoor lighting.  Solar lights have improved hugely over the last few years with most of them now being charged by daylight rather than sunlight.  There are lots of different types to choose from to add interest to your garden after dark.

Fairy lights will make trees, trellis work and even hedges look as though they’ve been sprinkled with fairy dust and definitely shouldn’t be kept just for Christmas decoration; lit plant will give a patio or windowsills a new lease of life; and solar lanterns add interest, and of course light, on pathways or simply hung from a tree.

Many of the solar uplighters are powerful enough to effectively light up a specimen tree or statuary, at least for a few hours of early evening, and I love that effect in a garden.

For the wanna-be designers, have a look at the lovely contemporary cube shaped solar light www.lights.co.uk/cube-shaped-led-solar-lamp-ziva-in-white.

Or if you want something a little less conventional, check out Glo Gnomes, Gnomes that glow in the dark, as the name suggests.  www.amazon.co.uk/PrimoLiving-Garden-Gnome-Glow-Dark.

And with Halloween coming up, why not try what a friend did last year – simply snap a few glow sticks and put them in various bushes along the pathway to the front door so they look like the eyes of someone hiding in the bushes.  It kept the ‘trick or treaters’ away!

Countdown

Trying to find some motivation to get things done?  Then let me remind you that there are only 3 months of this decade left.  That should encourage you to get a wiggle on!  I hear people say, “I don’t know where that week went”, but honestly I’m saying. “I don’t know where that decade went.”  In my head, 1984 was only 10 years ago.