Slow Down! Take a closer look!

Exbury, the good and the bad?

Had a lovely day today! Gerry and I took Gerrys Mum and Dad to Exbury Gardens where we had a sunny and relaxing day. The colours are amazing, and if this were my Brothers blog, you would no doubt be reading the names of all the flowers! I can only say there were yellow ones, red ones, purple ones etc!



Personally, I am not so keen on formal gardens, preferring a more natural and wild look, but there is a little of everything at the gardens and while the attraction for most people is the incredible profusion of colours, there are plenty of more natural corners to find.



Of course, while the others were 'ooing' and 'ahhing', I was looking carefully around to see what wildlife there was. This is where I started to get suspicious about just how eco-friendly Exbury really is! Everywhere was a blaze of colour, there are plenty of water features, the sun was blazing - but where was the wildlife?


A few birds could be heard singing, and there were a few bees and a few other bugs flying around (including this stunning hoverfly). BUT, especially as the afternoon heat settled in, the flowers should have been swarming with bees and other little beauties.



My suspicions may be groundless, but I suspect there is extensive use of pesticides at the gardens. Some people may say 'Why not?'. However, remove insects and you are removing the most important layer of the food chain. This affects everything higher up the chain and would certainly account for the low number of birds and I suspect if further investigation were carries out it would be found that there is also a lower than normal concentration of small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds of prey etc in the area. If this is the case, I feel it is a real shame that we cannot accept everything that goes with nature. BUT, maybe I just caught the gardens on a day when the bugs were resting!

This is a bit of a 'soap box' issue with me, as we already see huge negative effects on wildlife and the eco-system as a result of farming, with arable farming accounting for the majority of wildlife deaths in this country (a study by the University of reading has identified 170 species that are now extinct as a direct result of arable farming). There are moves to more responsible farming methods, but we have a long way to go. Whoops - better get off my soab box or this could go on all night! Maybe a whole entry on the subject one day?

However, a great end to the day! I knew there was a monster spider lurking in the Leylandii trees at the end of our garden, so when I got home, I put the camera on the tripod, positioned it close to the cobweb and waited! later on a small beetle fell into the web and a few seconds later, out she came! What a beauty!

This really is a goliath for a UK spider and she lives in our garden! Ok, flowers are nice but there is so much other beauty and drama going on all the time!

Thats it for now, I am tired but hopefully a trip to the forest tomorrow!