Heron

It has been so hot here. Daytime temperatures have been up in the high 30°s C (97°F+), with humidity at around 50% plus. One night at 3.30am when I couldn't sleep, I checked and the temperature in the house was 31°C (88°F) and the humidity had reached 86%. Plants have been wilting fast, and so have people. We daren't open the windows at night because of the mosquitoes (including tiger mosquitoes) and so fans and air-conditioning have placed such a strain on the electricity supply, that blackouts have been frequent.

The only time that it has been possible to consider doing anything active has been around dawn (anti-mosquito lotion having been applied.) So just as it got light one day last week, Anthony and I grabbed the bikes and headed for the Parco Nord.

We weren't the only ones with the same idea - joggers, dog-walkers and other cyclists were out in force, despite the time of day. But not enough to frighten off the wildlife, which was also taking advantage of the few hours respite from the heat. We headed for the ponds, where we saw moorhens, turtles, shoals of fish, swallows and this grey heron.

We got quite close, and he didn't seem too fazed. But then he must have decided that enough was enough, and took off ...

Lombardy has two types of heron - the large Grey Heron that we saw, and the Little Egret - a smaller type, completely white in colour. Both types are fairly common in Europe (as well as Africa and Asia), but because Lombardy is an important rice growing region (the largest in Europe), they are particularly common here. They hunt in shallow water and, whether near rivers, canals, ponds,or flooded rice fields, both types are fairly easy to spot wading through the water in search of the frogs and fish that are their main prey.

I don't think I've ever seen one quite so close up though.

Lavender's blue?

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly ... No it isn't. Or at least it can be. But it can also be white. Or yellow. Or pink. Or even lavender.

I came across this lot yesterday when we took a walk in the park to enjoy the longest evening of the year. The temperatures had suddenly shot up - we went from 13°C last Saturday to 31°C this - a ridiculous difference which left us all gasping for air like beached goldfish. So it was a relief to get out in the evening when the sun went down and a slight breeze picked up.

In the park, the lavender was in full bloom and the bees had clearly decided to work the nightshift to make the most of it. There were loads of them, all of different kinds - encouraging given all the recent tales of colony collapse disorder. I tried to convince a few of them to stay still long enough for me to get a close up, but they weren't having any and I came home with about thirty photos of a purple blur with a brown and yellow blob somewhere in the middle.

But it was glorious, and so was the smell. Lavender looks best in a mass, which is why I've always shied away from having it on the balcony. But I'm starting to wonder whether next year it wouldn't be worth dedicating one of the larger containers to it.

I think this was Lavandula latifolia, but I'm not 100% sure. There is a hybrid, known as Lavandin, of Lavandula latifolia and Lavandula angustifolia (English lavender) and it may have been that.

Lavender likes a moderately poor and well-drained soil - too much water will result in root rot. It's originally a Mediterranean plant and loves the sun, but many varieties are hardy in much cooler temperatures - like Britain for instance. It was introduced to Britain by the Romans, who used it to perfume their baths - hence the name, which derives from the Latin lavare, meaning to wash.

And if this has started you thinking, like me, that maybe you do have room for a lavender bush somewhere, just find a friendly neighbour who already has some. It's propagated easily by cuttings, taken at the end of the summer. Check out this article from the RHS site which explains how.

Dinosaur Eggs

It finally stopped raining this weekend and, very briefly, the sun came out. So we headed to the Parco Nord, a large park on the outskirts of Milan for a long walk.

The park covers 1,500 acres and is a strange mixture of cultivated bits, and natural areas - woodland and agricultural land. It's not a flower-bed type of park, but there are a lot of flowering trees and shrubs. We came across an area full of philadelphus - would have looked spectacular a few weeks back but it was all over now. I was hoping that the lavender bushes would be in bloom, but they weren't quite ready.

There were however some rose bushes which were in full bloom and looked wonderful.

After all the torrential rain we've had, and the sudden sun, the humidity was sky high and at times we felt we were walking through a rainforest. So it was barely a surprise to come across a number of dinosaur nests - about seven in all scattered around the grassier areas of the park.

There's quite a lot of wildlife in the park - I've posted about it before - but I always thought it was confined to birds, a few mammals and some smaller reptiles. But these eggs were clearly on a different scale. Diplodocus maybe? Or triceratops? Surely the local authorities wouldn't allow raptors to nest in a public park?

There was no sign of the parents - probably hiding in the depths of the woods. Maybe dinosaurs don't look after their nests too much.

I wonder how long they'll take to hatch? I'll have to go back soon and see if I can get a photo of the babies. Now I bet that would push my hits up ....

A morning in the park

My son and I spent yesterday morning in a large park on the outskirts of Milan. It's a park with a bit of everything - some areas are cultivated with flowering shrubs, there's woodland, agricultural land, lakes and ponds, areas for sport and so on. I went a bit beserk with my camera and came back with nearly sixty photos, so I thought that I'd post a couple every few days for a while.

The elder was in flower .....


and there was weigela everywhere ...

and this is one which I know I should be able to name, but can't. It's on the tip of my tongue ....


This one was new to me though. I loved its trailing blue flower spikes. Does anyone recognise it?