With the huge shift in temperature this week, spring is suddenly here and several bird species are now singing in the garden: blue tit (blåmeis), great tit (kjøttmeis), greenfinch (grønnfink) and, down in the bay about 20 goldeneyes (kvinand) have been displaying. Yesterday, for the first time, I heard singing woodpigeon, bullfinch and this great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett) drumming on the metal cap of the electricity pole:
..and this nuthatch (spettmeis) was inpecting what I have in offer for nesting sites. The oldest painted bird boxes predate my time here and were put up for starlings (stær) originally.
I was surprised yesterday to see my first swallows of 2020, 3 of them hunting in the garden for a few minutes. We’re experiencing the coldest weather this late in spring in my lifetime according to an article in the Trondheim newspaper yesterday, translating as “This burst of cold air from the North Pole is giving the coldest weather this late in the spring in 65 years”, my own arrival on this planet on 29th April 1955 coincided with this. In the UK “On the 17th May 1955, the heaviest SNOWFALL in London in May for about 100 years occurred when snow fell for 2-3 hours across practically the whole of England, accompanied by a widespread SEVERE GALE. One of the LATEST SNOWFALL events across southern England known”. I apologise for the disruption ;) I’m one of the few who enjoy this weather as it means that my perennial vegetables grow slower and actually yield more over a longer period as it’s too cold for flowers to appear but perfect for leaf production! I do feel sorry though for gardeners at higher elevations who will be getting a lot of snow this week :(
The swallows probably arrived on my birthday when the temperature crept over 10C! In this video they were flying over a maple tree whose flowers were trying to open! The 8 day forecast is just as cold with not a single day above 10C!
(English: Short Norwegian video of a few things I’m harvesting from the garden now) En kort norsk video om litt av det jeg høster i hagen for tiden. Dette i forbindelse med et intervju til et magasin artikkel som ble gjennomført (på avstand) i forrige uke! Planter som nevnes er Strandkål (Crambe maritima) Bendelløk (Allium scorodoprasum) Prærieløk eller Chicago-løk (Allium cernuum) Stjernemelde eller Kaukasisk spinat (Hablitzia tamnoides) Og det bør nevnes at jeg kunne fått alle mine grønnsaker fra ute i hagen denne våren (men noen tar jeg også fra kjelleren). Lagt ut foreløpig kun på Facebook av Naturvernforbund i Trøndelag! https://www.facebook.com/192991824049531/videos/844838809324232
I returned home this afternoon from my 6 city tour of Canada to a beautiful cool day here on the Trondheimsfjord. Spring is further advanced than anywhere I visited in Quebec and Ontario…with many of the early spring flowers now out, blackbirds, robin and chiffchaff singing and an abundance of greens everywhere!
On the way from the airport in the bus
On the way from the airport in the bus
Approaching home
The red house on the hill…
Perennial onions and day lilies
Sorrel and caraway greens showing
Allium cernuum…I’ve now finally seen you in the wild too!
Angelica gigas
Perennial onions
Wild Hepatica
Primula elatior, oxlip
Erythronium dens-canis
Alliaria and ground elder
Alchemilla
Campanula latifolia and ground elder
Dandelions
My oldest Hablitzia
Rumex acetosa ” Non-flowering”
Rumex acetosa “Profusion” (non-flowering), not the crinkly leaves compared to the last one
