Creatures of the garden...

Here are some more pictures of interesting creatures that abide in our garden.

There are loads pics but most are not worth bothering to upload, because said creatures move before one gets enough time get the shot...

1 Bats

They fly about at dusk a lot, but you never see them up close, except when...

... discovered a tiny fluffy was flitting about in the shed. I initially thought it was a Lady Grey moth.

I think, it thought it had roosted there as I had left the door open. Then when it woke up, It couldn't work out how to get out and go eat insects. It eventually just stopped, seemingly a bit knackered and crouched on a piece of wood.

From the back. Furry!

It flew off eventually, so hopefully it was fine after its experience

2. Foxes

Betty Pug is the official household canine. This interloper is no pug, but they are very beautiful.

 Closer up...

A great brush there...

Just for clarity, this is the official dog of the house. This shot was taken in the 1950s during atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll. She forgot her glasses. Duh.

All that radioactivity grew her into a monstrous size

Caught drinking from the pond. She emerged minutes later with a green tache.

uh?

2 Fat wood pigeons 

These will eat anything they can get at. Notably the cherries if you are not quick. I have planted hawthorns, and we have quite a bit of ivy so they do have some sanctioned berry options.

This one is sticking its tongue out at me...

Corvids - 1 Magpies

Super smart magpies - every morning without fail they come down to nick the dog's food. It starts with flapping noises, clicky squawking between at least two of them and then there they are, perched and scroungy, eyeing up the chances. 

Mainly they just get scraps, as the pug likes its chow

Corvids 2 - Jays

These don't visit often and when they do, they don't hang about if they see you. They are very shy, unlike the cheeky magpies.

 

They hop about looking for stuff. 

But in this case, way too late after the event...

Maybe jays are not so smart. At least the magpies have worked out to eat the dogfood before the dog has already done so.

After an investigative peck on that pug-provided nugget though, it sensibly decided against carrying off the morsel. The expression says it all. It may have thought it was a caterpillar. Probably tasted better than some. 

Corvids 3 - Carrion crows

These do occasionally land, but mostly perch high up on a large radio aerial next door.

 

Invetebrates

There are loads of invetebrate creatures. Here are a few of the more notable recent ones

Dragonflies

This magnificent specimen was sunning itself long enough to capture. I believe it is a Migrant Hawker

They like our pond - here's a different type on one of the edging logs.

Not enough resolution to zoom in in detail, but it's a Common Darter

Elephant hawk noth caterpillar

About the size of my pinkie finger. What a beast..

Chomping away, as caterpillars must chomp...

In a sieve, being moved off the path so it didn't get trodden on...

Making a gate from (mostly) reclaimed wood

Our nice new gate...

Why a new gate?

Having started the long-overdue process of clearing the far side of the house, there was a need to close off the passageway, that was created by clearing our years of accumulated junk and overgrown trees and ivy.

Now, you can buy gates from DIY shops etc, but... 

a. they cost £150 or more
b. they are pretty flimsy 

So, I built one instead. Almost all the wood was reclaimed from skips etc. 

Build

In this shot, you can see the outer stiles, top and bottom rails are clean, planed timber and the central lock rail is from a plasterboard pallet rail (marked by the word "Gypsum")

I did buy some wood - this was a couple of 4" by 2" planed lengths for the two stiles (the longest vertical pieces at each side of the gate). 

I could have used reclaimed wood, but I hadn't been able to quickly scavange two decent straight pieces, that were true enough. I also just I wanted to crack on with it. 

The bought timber cost about £15 for the pair. There was enough extra length to cut the top and bottom rails from them after cutting the initial stiles.

Before joining up the outer frame, I also added some vertical mullions to connect the rails for added strength. Mullions are also uprights, like the stiles, but they are not full length. They are bracing connectors between the horizontal rails. These were cut from the same pallets as the centre rail. The mullions were pallet facing-planks. 

All the joints between stiles, railes mullions were tasty mortice and tenon joints. These are are super strong. 

I appear not to have any decent closeups of the mortices and tenons being cut, though - oops! 

This zoom-in will have to do. 

The mortices (holes) were cut by initially drilling out most of the waste wood with a spade bit, then trimming the rest with chisels. I , did final tidying with a file for a good fit.

Here is a joint after gluing and cramping

 

Here are the chisels used. The large paring chisel is a tasty 50cm wide. The smaller chisel I bought in a flea market in Tokyo. But my favourite tool here is the carver's mallet. I made this from hawthorn wood that I discovered by the roadside a few years ago. A surprisingly lovely wood.

After the frame was glued and had set, I added beading inside the openings between the frame parts. The beading would allow me to set in panels, to fill in the gate.

The beading after setting

The panels were offcuts from plywood crates used to transport fireplaces. They are fairly rough 5 ply sheets. by gluing and screwing these in, the overall frame is even further strengthened by the cross-bracing they provide. 

The final gate. The panelling was added to both sides of the gate. With its jointed frame and double-thickness panelled bracing, the gate is really solid and heavy.