Practical Ecology

Nature Switched On

 

 

 

 


in the Pyrenees  the first 10 years

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gallery 1: 2006-2012
gallery 2: 2012-
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>> 2009 Apr 23
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                         a   S T A M M E R  project              

2009 April 9 to 12, Thursday to Sunday


More rainfall: about 90 litres for the last two weeks. It filled up the two ponds and the water deposit. This time they also received a substantial amount of  water from the garden house roof. 

With some heavy rainstorms this weekend I was able to check the functioning of the 120 meter long hose from the roof to the upper pond. Being a closed system there may arise problems with pockets of air that get trapped in irregular stretches of the hose and obstruct the flow of water. This is what happened in the first stretch coming down from the roof: because at first water didn't come down to the pond but when I opened the tap for the watering of the garden (at 25 m from the roof), after some sputtering, water came down fluently, first from this tap and then at the pond.

 

The problem repeated itself at each new inflow of rainwater so I will have to find some method of avoiding these air pockets in the first stretch of the hose.

 


WWW   NSO

 

Impressive skies these days with thunder and the occasional hailstorm.
Looking east.
Saturday 18:56

  Blanca at the filled up pond.
Saturday  19:08
Steady rainwater flow from the 20mm hose into the upper pond.
Saturday 18:35
 
 

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The natterjack toads (Epidalea calamita) love all this water and the full moon must also have inspired them because there were large gatherings of these cracker jacks in the ponds at night. Here a recording  of the extraordinary noise they  produced on Thursday night; in the background the chirping of the crickets.

 

 

 

 

 

 
Full moon coming up in the south-east at 21:19 on Thursday. This macho showed its bravery creeping next to Blanca's boot and starting to yell.
Thursday 21:22
 

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Apart from the Lady orchid (Orchis purpurea) another orchid has expanded its territory over the terrain. It is the Early spider orchid (Ophrys sphegodes) which is showing its early flowers on many new places. My theory is that these orchids are prospering because of the absence of grazing by sheep. The leaves of many orchids are quite attractive for these herbivores, whose herds graze regularly in the neighbourhood and, in the past, also on the terrain I suppose.

 
In contrast with the leaves of Orchis purpurea, many leaves of Ophrys sphegodes  show nibbles of some smaller herbivore.
Photograph taken on 3 April 15:47
Detail of the flowers, with the spider mark on the labellum.
Photograph taken on 3 April 15:48
 

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Tower Mustard (Arabis glabra) has started building its 'towers' all over the terrain. Few plants show such an affinity for the vertical.

 
 

 

 


Arabis
glabra in the sun on the central terrace, starting to flower.
Photograph taken on 5 April 12:50

Arabis glabra sprouting in the shade on the
upper terrace,  with the towering stems of last year.
Photograph taken on 5 April 12:56.
 

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Another victim of the blanket of death, which is the role a packet of straw can play when it isolates the upper parts of plants from the warm earth. This time it is the olive which had been muddling along for the last two years but at least surviving until I tugged it up with the blanket. It is perhaps best to take away all straw from plants in early spring, to let the soil receive and emit the warmth of the sun. But this introduces something that straw mulching is supposed to suppress: labour.

 
Frozen olive tree on the upper terrace.
Looking north-west.
Saturday 12:56
 
 

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I think there should be a healthy strain of laziness in everybody's character. Laziness can be the gravity that brings things down to simplicity and tranparency. For the seat on this photo only two screws were used to fix the wooden covering firmly to the iron structure.

 

 
  Two garden seats improvised with junk iron and wood.
Sunday 13:58

introduction
floristic catalogue
faunistic catalogue
contact
index
gallery 1: 2006-2012
gallery 2: 2012-
map
>> 2009 Apr 23
<< 2009 Mar 27

 

 

 


 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Latest revision on:  01/08/2018