Small spring southern garden

We popped down to the south coast again this weekend to see my Grandma, and I took the time to have a quick stroll through her small garden. It was full of signs of spring and the sun made it pleasantly warm for a day in mid-february. The birds were out and singing too, which gave me the opportunity to take a few photos. Her garden has some nice features and plants too which are included in the photos below:

The photo montage below shows some of the features that caught my eye in her garden. The arch and bench in front of the ivy bush is my favourite part of the garden. The nestbox has been used before in 2007 by a pair of Blue Tits. I think that the box looks nice on the wall, and the worn wood blends in well. They are nice features as well as functional nest sites! The plant in the bottom right of the picture is one of the many colourful plants already this year. Some very colourful potted plants were also showing signs of spring.

Her garden includes a few bird feeders, which attract small numbers of garden birds. The Great Tits in the photos below are among my favourite. They are already paired up and looked like they were searching for a suitable nest site. The first picture is a male, while the second is of the female - note the thinner black stripe on the female. They were surprisingly tame and let me get pretty close. I also heard Dunnocks, Robins and Blackbirds whilst I was out too, but only actually saw the Dunnock, which was singing its spring heart out on a branch.

A fantastic weekend there as usual, and long may the good weather continue. The next time I visit will be in the easter holidays when I will, hopefully have a good look around Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve. I have seen this reserve from the outside before as you may know from a previous post, but next time I'd love to look around the reserve properly. Unfortunately I have some exams in early March, so I may not post again until after that :-(

All photos taken by me in my Grandma's garden.