Close encounters

I’ve had a couple of close encounters with birds the last couple of days:
1) My local robin (rødstrupe) has been getting braver and braver over the last week and yesterday came and joined me and even sang to me…this is the robin’s sub-song, much more subdued than the main song:

…and it had something caught around one of its feet…I thought initially it was plastic, but it looks natural, so it will hopefully free itself. Perhaps it was asking for help? :)

2) I noticed this feral pigeon (bydue) on the driveway picking up seeds (birch?). I’ve never seen a feral pigeon before in the garden and I’ve never even see the common woodpigeons (ringduer), that breed in the garden, on the driveway. The only time I’ve seen a pigeon/dove before on the driveway was a probable rare Mongolian Turtle Dove a couple of years ago in winter. I started filming and to my suprise it walked towards me and passed very close and continued towards the house. This behaviour wouldn’t be unusual in the city centre, but it still took me by surprise.

I went indoors and watched it feeding outside the kitchen….and then suddenly there was a commotion in the living room. It had walked into the house and tried to fly through the window glass and was stunned hung upside down amongst the Begonias! I managed to grab hold of it and it flew off…

…and sat on the outhouse roof before disappearing!

BINGN Student Visit to the Edible Garden

It was a busy weekend. On Sunday, a group of 6 third year BINGN students, a three year biodynamic apprenticeship program in the Nordic countries were here for 5 hours. This was part of a one-week seminar close to Trondheim. Part of the education is to visit and learn from many farms and gardens around the Nordic countries. The education is in English and there were students from Hungary, Belgium, Finland, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Sweden! There were many questions and lots of discussion underway. We also provided lunch which, of course, included a salad! I knew a couple of them before as they’d been at the KVANN (Norwegian Seed Savers) Annual Meeting in April!

Visit from Austrian Hobbits!

Saturday was a great day with the garden full of Austrians and to make them feel at home I took them to the steepest parts of my garden 😊. Two years ago, I toured Austria giving talks for the seed saver organisation Arche Noah and the highlight was my visit hosted by Thomas Strubreiter and his wife Michi who have built an amazing ecodwelling / earthship with turf roof.  A series is currently airing on Austrian television showing its construction and a short program “Das-hobbithaus in Salzburg” can be seen here: https://www.servus.com/tv/videos/aa-1vr7rebsw1w12/
It is located high in the mountains above Salzburg surrounded by alpine meadows and beautiful Lake Seewald. I gave a talk in the mountain restaurant Auerhütte, owned by the family and located nearby  http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=11483. Thomas and family have dedicated themselves to preserving rare breeds of farm animals, their connection to Arche Noah who also work with rare breeds! See also http://www.edimentals.com/blog/?p=11499

We talked about them visiting Malvik at some time, but it still came as a surprise to get a FB message from a very good friend of theirs, Birgit, who was living in Jämtland in Sweden, a 4 hour drive from here that Thomas and Michi were visiting and wondered if they could visit! They were here for a few hours on Saturday, a powerful meeting with a lot of laughter! Their turf roof will now have Norwegian roof onions from Gudbrandsdalen!

The Last Garden

After 3 years, I’ve finally finished the last cultivated area in the garden on the steep slope below the pond. The soil is very shallow, so I’ve terraced with bare rock showing between the terraces.
I’ve planted mostly fruit and berry bushes here, but also Xanthoxylum piperitum (Japanese pepper), one of which is thornless. There are also 3 types of Jostaberry, two selections of “Green-berried Blackcurrant”, three golden currants (Ribes aureum), three different black raspberries, two Elaeagnus umbellatus, Gooseberry Xenia and a couple of unknown Ribes spp. from Bo Blomqvist and Knut Poulsen!