Following in the Footsteps of an "Edwardian Lady" - Part 5 : Packwood House Gardens

Between 1880 and 1890 Edith Holden lived with her family at a house called Troutbeck in Darley Green. Packwood House was just a short walk away and the Holden children knew the Oakes family who lived at Packwood at the time and the Holdens often visited the gardens. Edith and her mother and sisters also often walked through Packwood House Park. Edith often mentioned visiting the Packwood area in "The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" and "Nature Notes".

On the 7th July, 1906, she writes in The Country Diary that she was given a beautiful white water lily from the pool at Packwood House. There are several paintings of water lilies both white and yellow for the month of July in this book.

I decided to go along to Packwood House Gardens one afternoon last week to see if water lilies were still to be found.

Walking out of the car park the North Court can be seen.




Entrance to the House and Gardens



Flower borders surround the courtyard by the Reception and Shop



Entrance to the House






Entrance to the Carolean Garden








Garden Pond in the Sunken Garden with the Yew Garden in the distance



There were water lilies in this pool although pink rather than white!






There is a much larger pool in the parkland outside the walled garden and it could be that the water lily given to Edith came from this pool. I couldn't see any sign of water lilies and did plan to walk round to see if I could find any but, although I had left home in sunshine, by the time I arrived it had clouded over and rain was threatening in typical Summer 2012 fashion!!







I did manage at long last to find some Meadowsweet in flower as this species is often mentioned by Edith on her travels in June and July.



The Gardens and fish ponds at Packwood fascinated Edith as did the Yew Garden which is said to represent the Sermon on the Mount. She spent time here sketching accompanied by the sound of birds and hum of bees from the hives.





The Gardens at Packwood were looking particularly beautiful despite the lack of sunshine. This is the Yellow Border although there are flowers of other colours mixed in with the yellow blooms













Back in the Sunken Garden



The borders surrounding the pool were redeveloped in 2007 resulting in an exotic garden theme.











Borders leading up to the Raised Terrace Walk with the Yew Garden behind











Bays full of roses





The Raised Terrace Walk - probably my favourite part of the Garden









On my way out I bought one of these Rudbekia plants from the shop to plant in our herbaceous border at home.









Three quarters of an hour after my arrival the rain arrived! So I gave up plans to walk around the yew garden and parkland and sheltered for a while in a gazebo.

Rose Garden from the Gazebo




Sunken Garden with the house behind



A few photos of some of the sundials scattered around the House and Gardens







Leaving the Gardens






As a matter of interest "Richard II" recently shown as part of BBC Two's Shakespeare season was partly filmed at Packwood House and Gardens.

Reference:

Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
The Country Diary Companion by Josephine Pool
The Edwardian Lady - The Story of Edith Holden Compiled by Ina Taylor

Highest Macro and Micro Moth Catch of the Year - so far!

For various reasons (mainly the dreadful rainy weather) I haven't put out the moth trap for a while so I was thrilled to find on Saturday morning, after putting the trap out on Friday night, that the moths have finally started to arrive.

Highlight though of the week was my first Swallow-tailed moth of the year seen on the outside of the kitchen window on Thursday night. I didn't manage to pot it so here's a photo of this beautiful species taken last year!




Here are some photos of Friday night's catch - some are a bit blurred due to the liveliness of the moths or the fact that they are that small and the photos are very heavily cropped. I didn't use the macro lens as I have still not mastered focusing on something as small as the micro moths. I am unsure of some of my identifications so any help would be very much appreciated as always.

I am pretty sure this moth is Barred Straw (and not Spinach) which would be a completely new garden tick. It was very difficult to photo as it just would not keep still but finally it calmed down for just a few seconds and I was able to take the lid off the pot.





Riband Wave?



The Uncertains and Rustics have started to arrive en masse

Uncertain (I think - due to the clearly visible Antemedial line and the clear Median area shading passing through the kidney)



Rustic (I think - as the Antemedial line is reduced to dots and the Median area shading is faint)



Another query - I think this is Heart and Club although its quite worn!



The next 3 are all Crambus pascuella (hopefully!)







A worn Tachystola acoxantha



The next 2 are, I think, Agriphila straminella





Garden Grass-veneer? - this is the best photo of an awful bunch!



Dipleurina lacustrata?



and finally, Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix?



Apologies for the fact that there are even more queries than usual! Things have been a bit hectic concerning my mother(plus I've been watching far too much tennis :) ) and I just haven't been able to spend all the usual hours poring over the moths and checking in id guides and on the internet.

Here's a very provisional summary of the moths caught

Summary of Moths Trapped Friday, 6th July

9.00 until dawn

15w Actinic Skinner Trap

Minimum Temperature - 11.4 degrees centigrade

1921 Scalloped Oak (Crocallis elinguaria) x 2

2381 Uncertain (Hoplodrina alsines) x 18 NFY

2382 Rustic (Hoplodrina blanda) x 3 NFY

2089 Heart and Dart (Agrotis exclamationis) x 3

2088 Heart and Club (Agrotis clavis) x 1 ?

2321 Dark Arches (Apamea monoglypha x 1

1713 Riband Wave (Idaea aversata) x 1 ? NFY

1758 Barred Straw (Eulithis pyraliala) x 1 ? NFG


1293 Garden Grass-veneer (Chrysoteuchia culmella) x 8 NFY

1294 Crambus pascuella x 4 NFY

1338 Dipleurina lacustrata x 1? NFY

0970 Barred Fruit-tree Tortrix (Pandemis cerasana) x 1? NFY

0656 Tachystola acroxantha x 1

1304 Agriphila straminella x 2 ? NFY

Garden Meadow and Flowers and a Juvenile "Woodie"

A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker has been visiting the feeders for a few weeks now - first with the adults and now on its own.

The newly planted part of the garden wildflower "meadow" has finally caught up growth wise with the rest of the meadow that has been there for many years.



When we first planted the mini meadow poppies dominated in the first year and the same thing is happening again:











Meadow Buttercups, Ribwort Plantain and Red and White Campion are still in flower and now other species are coming into bloom.

Salad Burnet



St John's Wort - exceedingly popular with insects (or it would be if it ever stopped raining!)



Lesser Knapweed



Common Vetch (hopefully I've got it right!) and Ox-eye Daisies



Ox-eye Daisy



More Corn Poppies - there are lots of buds so we should get many more coming into flower



The "nectar" pot I planted with Nasturtiums, Candytuft and Pot Marigolds to attract insects is now coming into flower. I should have thinned the seedlings out more as it looks a trifle overcrowded and caterpillars already seem to be munching holes in the leaves!



Penstemon



I bought Brian, at his request, a solar fountain for his birthday. It turns out he didn't really want a fountain but just the pump and solar panel to make a waterfall which will fall down the rockery at the back of the pond. I'll show you the finished version one day........!



Osteospermums



Some more photos of the juvenile Great Spotted Woodie. The photos were taken through a rather dirty kitchen window!



so I've adjusted the brightness and contrast on the rest of the photos!











One of my favourite plants at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens is "Bleeding Heart" or Dicentra spectabilis. I finally managed to get a few roots of this plant recently by mail order and already leaves and flowers have appeared.



The plant is also known as "Lady in the Bath" and "Lady in a Boat". If you turn up the flowers and open them you can see what looks like a little white lady in a boat or bath. Another common name is "Lady's Locket".




I found a Dunnock's nest in the garden early last week with 2 eggs. It was located at the top of a bay tree and was quite exposed. Two young hatched on Thursday and somehow managed to survive yesterday's torrential rain but sadly, despite covering the top of the bush with chicken wire to try and give some protection from predators, the nest was predated this morning.

I still haven't seen any butterflies recently and bumble bees and hoverflies are notable by their absence. I did run the moth trap last night and had my best catch of the year - dozens of moths in rain-sodden egg-boxes! I'll do a post in a few days as its going to take me a while to identify them all. There are plenty of micros so the new Micro Field Guide will come in handy! I think I have a new garden tick - a Barred Straw unless it turns out to be a Spinach and Uncertain has appeared in large numbers.

Oh and Good Luck to Andy Murray tomorrow :)

Search for Spotted Flycatchers in a Churchyard

It was the first dry, hot, sunny day for ages so this afternoon I popped along to a local churchyard where I found a family of Spotted Flycatchers last year.





I wandered round for ages - there were lots of blackbirds, jackdaws, swallows, robins, dunnocks and blue tits about but no sign of any Spot Fly's. The churchyard was a lot "tider" than St Giles but areas of wildflowers had been left and in one area there was a lovely mini meadow full of Fox and Cubs (I seem to be seeing these flowers everywhere at the moment).







There were several brown butterflies flying around in the middle of this area but I couldn't get close enough to identify them as I didn't want to trample down any flowers

Just as I was about to give up and leave I finally saw a Spotted Fly at the back of the war memorial.

A few poor heavily cropped record shots






The bird was at least 30 feet away far too distant for the 70-300m lens. I did try creeping up by hiding behind gravestones and moving slowly forward and lurking behind a yew tree all to no avail. The bird flew off as soon as I began to get closer. Goodness only knows what any passerbys must have made of my suspicious looking manouevres :)

The UK Spotted Flycatcher population has declined by 79% between 1980 and 2005 and this species is now on the Red List of Birds of Conservation Concern and also listed as a Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) Priority Species so its good to know that a pair are back in this churchyard again.