The Big Garden and Croft

J > Now that we don’t keep chickens on the croft, there’s a vacuum that’s being filled by wildlife. Thus are the hollows in the turf-and-rock ramparts of the old stack yard now healing with new grass ; except, that is, one hollow, which has been taken up by a female Lesser Black-Backed Gull.   Whilst her partner patrols overhead,  surfing the sea breazes, she has made her nest, laid three spotted-green eggs, and now has two spotted-grey-brown chicks, that are easily missed when they hunker down amongst the bare rocks of the ramparts.

D > We’ve been lifting and dividing some too-big-for-their-boots phormiums, including a Phormium tenax ‘Sundowner’.  When they are mature, the leaves are streaked with greens tinged with brown, red tinged with gold.  Young leaves, however, have brighter colouring : the red is nearly pink, the gold is nearer to yellow, and the green has a hint of blue.