The Umbrella Tree

Apparently this has been featured on TV a few times recently but we saw one which demonstrated the difficulty of keeping it trimmed to shape. Seeing it in situ that is understandable.

With several other topiarised yews of similar age, it resides in the garden of C17 Levens Hall, where we met our old friend from Storth to guide us round. Extra 1, top is an unusual wall sundial, fortunately in a rare moment of sunshine, correct to GMT; bottom picture one of three Comma butterflies on the one plant (similar to purple loosetrife but as yet not ID'd).

We had coffees in the excellent cafe before our walk there and repeated this after moving on to Sizergh to see the gardens there. Both venues are rich in floral and general interest.

Extra 2 is rather more contentious: top and bottom left of birds at our feeding station early this morning, cock chaffinch (his wife not far behind) and a nuthatch, a ?juvenile greater-spotted woodpecker. Not seen are blue and great tits. Then, bottom right, a grey squirrel.

This is the problem: greys carry pox virus which is devastating the population of reds and, in these parts, we are advised to report any sightings. This we did and received a response that the warden for this area would make contact. We returned to the cottage at teatime to find that the table had been cleared, the peanut feeder removed and the perspex front of the (red) squirrel feeder also removed. We couldn't find them in the wood store or anywhere obvious, nor was there a note through the door by way of explanation..Having taken the initiative to report the grey, we think we should have been requested - and expected- to do this ourselves. The reason given for this action is that garden feeders draw the greys away from a controlled area and any overlap with the reds' territory allows transmission of the pox virus.

The upshot is, of course, that there will no longer be visits from these beautiful birds, nor from the reds; the irony is that I disturbed a red one earlier when going out to put more food on the bird table, which attracted the grey. Once more, the many suffer because of the few, which makes me very sad.