A COMER

pansyface

A few months ago I cleared out a small forest of daylilies. In the bare soil this little jobbie appeared. Does anyone have a clue as to what he might be? About eight inches tall so far. Very probably bird seed.

B3

I don't know what your plant is, but I dug out a load of day lillies recently. I couldn't believe how hard they were to get out.
Tenacious little bar stewards😡

pansyface

Yes, and I’ve had to leave the area bare because they keep rising from their graves.

B3

Were they the Carrie variety?

Fairygirl

It looks a bit Verbena bonariensis - ish.
Do you like my correct horticultural terminology? 

I have a smaller variety that looks quite like that. 

pansyface

Ooh that would be nice. 🙂

Fairygirl

It looks similar, but not quite the same, so it might be something completely different of course...

bertrand-mabel

Do you use niger bird seed?

Looks like seedlings growing underneath our bird feeders.

If it is you could let it continue to grow and flower and then seed.....free seeds for the birds.

pansyface

We (actually not we, he) buy mixed bird seed in huge sacks from our local pet shop. They contain loads of different things so niger seed might well be in there somewhere. 🙂

The pet shop man delivered a sack yesterday, along with two large bags of those thin extruded suet snippets and six of those fat blocks. This is the summertime menu.

 I asked my dearly beloved (for it is his delight to feed the birds, I just wipe up the mess on the patio, the tables, the chair backs, the washing etc etc), I asked him gently and with as little irritation as I could muster, how much he spends on this stuff every month.

Over a year? he mused. About £70 a month. 

A month.

I ask you. Do they not have the wherewithal to find their own food?🙄

BenCotto

His reply sounds suspiciously like my request, as a child, asking if I could stay up to see the football.
”What time is it on?”
”Oh, eight hun(cough,swallow)dredandfive.”

pansyface

I tell you what. I’ve had enough. Enough, I tell you.

We have just spent the last three weeks redecorating the entire house. Painted twelve rooms with white matt emulsion. And the hall. And the staircase. And the landing. And the conservatory.

And just three days after we put down our brushes for the last time, what happens? 

A baby blackbird comes down to eat from the largesse laid on by Mr Muscle, my dearly beloved. Comes down onto the patio, by the open front door, nom nom. 

And what happens next? Guess. Go on. You’ll never.

The sparrowhawk, feeling a bit peckish, decides to catch young blackbird. Swoops down. Young blackbird dives for cover. Into the hall. Sparrowhawk follows. Young blackbird panics. Swerves to avoid. Craps on the newly painted hall wall. Dives into the sitting room. Sparrowhawk thinks what the hell, I’m here now. Young blackbird takes off for the window. Swerves. Craps on one of the sitting room newly painted walls. Swerves again. Craps on another newly painted wall. Swerves a third time and breaks its neck on the windowpane. Sparrowhawk sees that windowpanes are to be avoided, flies out into the hall and away.

I can now testify that blackbird crap is impervious to all known cleaning products and leaches through any white matt paint that is applied to it.