Non-Gardener builds an Observatory, Garden Railway and even Dabbles with Plants!

Good pictures @ArmyAirForce, sorry to hear that you were all ill over Christmas, not what you wanted I'm sure.

Storm debris and tidying up can wait for warmer weather!

 

8th January 2026

The trailcam caught two mice together in the last hour of the 8th of January. It's usually just one mouse caught at a time, but this time, two mice were seen together multiple times over that evening. As I've observed before, they run down the wood to the pond, where the bird seed has been scattered, then run back up the wood, behind the Thorny Olive tree, fading into the darkness near the Cornelian Cherry, which is the next tree up the wood.

There is a hole in the ground near the Cherry and I've often wondered whether anything lived down there. On this night, the webcam caught their glowing eyes looking back towards the camera, then diving down a hole. From where they were vanishing, it could only be the hole by the Cherry tree.

A couple of days later, I sprinkled a little bit of seed down the hole, where birds couldn't reach, but mice could if they were there. The following day, the seed had gone, so I'm convinced we have an underground mouse house.

 

7th January 2026

Jumping back a day, one of the plant pot Jeeps took a direct hit over the cold spell. I probably should have brought them indoors earlier, but I think the one that exploded must have had some flaws in the stone casting.

The other Jeep was fine, but the broken one wasn't just cracked by the soil freezing and expanding, it had shattered in multiple places. I suspect the stone wasn't fully waterproofed by the paint, allowing moisture to penetrate the cast stone. As the temperature dropped, it froze, cracking the casting all over.

The body was in two main pieces, but the screen also shattered, one wheel broke in two and the whole front underside separated. Having rebuilt the original 1943 Jeep between 2012 and 2014, I figured I could repair this one. You can also see how much the original paint has faded in 6 months outside.



14th January 2026

Piece by piece, the Jeep was re-assembled with Gorilla Glue, as its foaming action would expand into the stone to give a good bond. It was done over several days, clamping each piece until fully cured, then grinding out excess glue to allow the next piece to be fitted.

Once all the parts had been re-assembled, I used a Dremel drill, to grind out the glue from the surface of all the cracks. Next, a two part car body filler was mixed up and pasted into all the cracks. This could be sanded, giving a hard surface finish. The Gorilla glue, due to its foaming action, is full of air bubbles, so doesn't give a good finish if sanded.



15th January 2026

The filler was applied on the 14th and left a day for 24 hours. It was sanded on the 15th and once that was done, it was followed up with the light green fine surface filler. That was wet sanded later in the day. Now on the 16th, I'm ready to start painting the Jeep back into Olive Drab. I'll probably paint the inside with a good layer of Hammerite, as a thick waterproof layer.

 

11th/14th January 2026

In the recent snow, it soon became clear where the avian highways were in the wood.

During one of my trips to download the trailcam, I noticed a chunky tree branch under the Juniper. I liked the look of it and so buried it in the pond, as I thought it would make a nice photo opportunity with any birds that land on it.



16th January 2026

By the 16th, there were Snowdrops popping up all over the wood. It's nice to see things coming to life across the wood. At the open area at the top end of the wood, there's a big clump of what might be Daffodils, near the big stepping stone. I don't have any pictures of them blooming from last year, only green stems over 12 inches tall. I need to pay more attention as to what flowers where this year.



18th January 2026

Having seen how much both Jeeps had faded in the sun, I gave the intact Jeep a light rub down and have started respraying that one too. The repaired Jeep has three coats of paint on it now, while the other has had one. I'm about to go and spray another coat on both. They should easily be complete by the time the weather warms up again.

When the spraying is done, I'm back to stripping the wallpaper from the lounge walls, now working down the side window, fireplace and radiator walls. By the time all the decorating is done, the weather should be good enough to get back in the garden to start the stream and ponds.

 

27th January 2026

Since the last post, the detail painting and markings were completed on the Jeeps. This time, "Jessie" is in U.S. Army Air Force markings, while "Hope" is in RAF markings. My fullsize Jeeps have magnetic plastic RAF markings, so I can change the look, depending on the event I'm attending.

Some more concerning news, is that the 27th marked three weeks since I've seen the rabbits in the garden. It is concerning, because the Facebook group for the next village over, has had a number of posts from people seeing dead rabbits all over, while they've been out walking their dogs. Several people suspect an outbreak of myxomatosis, so I'm wondering whether "Jellybean" and "Wascally" have left our wood permanently.



29th January 2026

While out downloading the trailcam, I noticed that the Snowdrops are popping up all over the wood now. What is surprising is that a number of them are much more advanced in development than others, even in clumps of several bulbs. I'm curious to know why some bulbs, all growing in the same soil, shoot up much faster than others.

 

Nearer the pond, I've got four Cyclamen mixed amongst the Snowdrops. Two plants are definitely hardy Cyclamen, transplanted from the sun room patio. The other two ( pink flowers ) are some of the plants bought at the back end of last year. I don't think they were hardy, but despite the snow and frosts recently, they still seem to be hanging on to life.

Amongst the Snowdrops, there are several patches of Geranium robertianum ( so my plant app says! ), that have appeared on their own. Further up the wood, around the Pinetree, there's also Geum urbanum ( Wood avens ) that have also appeared on their own. I don't mind this natural greening of the woodland floor, as I wanted the wood to be fairly natural with minimal intervention. Having said that, I still want to add some more flowers to pop up at different times of the year. I don't think any of the Wood anemones I planted came up. Despite soaking before planting and lots of watering the ground over the hot Summer, nothing appeared.



The birds seem to be getting to know me now and when I go out to download the trailcam, I take a small pot of seed to scatter on the stepping stones by the pond. Quite often, a couple of shakes of the pot, so the seed rattles, will have birds fly to the branches around me. Most frequently, it's the Robins, Bluetits, Dunnocks and Blackbirds. The Blackbirds seem to be the most timid, but today, this one came within about three feet of me to feed. I was around the other side of the pond getting some pictures when the Dunnock dropped in.

 

Night time visits to the wood have been fairly quiet over the cold, frosty and stormy weather, but last night had some visitors. Increasingly, both mice are seen out of their burrow together, where until recently, I only saw one at a time. The seed that they don't take and is still there by morning, is usually eaten by the Doves and Pigeons. The Magpies prefer the seed in the fat balls in the feeder, but I have seen them taking some of the mealworm pellets and dunking them in the pond before eating.



Ginger also made an appearance at about 1:15am. At first, I thought it was Smudge, but after a closer inspection of the markings in the nine captures, I'm pretty sure it is Ginger. It's been bitterly cold outside, so I haven't been inclined to sit out with my camera to do any photography. There's also been a lot of rain recently, both day and night, with the high winds driving it sideways through the wood.

 

30th January 2026

Lynne and I had a Friday afternoon date to a few local garden centres. Several of the local centres also have great cafes! As you do, we came back with some trays of plants; some for the woodland and some for we call the ornamental flower bed on the front edge of the wood. For the woodland, we got some Primroses to dot around and add some late Winter, early Spring colour. For the planter, we got some Sweet William for around the back, since they have a bit of height to them. We haven't decided what will go in the front yet.

Both plants are meant to be fairly hardy. In the garden centre, the plants were all in an open-sided, but roofed area, so I'm going to keep them in the cold frame a bit longer, until we move away from frosts. I'm not that keen to go digging in the garden just yet anyway!

4th February 2026

Today, I got the Delosperma jewel plants, re-potted back into the repaired and repainted Jeeps. They are going to stay in my workshop for a while, until the weather warms up a bit.



Around a month ago, while downloading the trailcam, I got mobbed by a gang of Long-tailed Tits, all swarming around the bird feeder, about three feet away from me. Earlier today, the camera caught them again, while I wasn't there. There were around eight this time, darting from the nearby bushes and trees, to the feeder and back to the trees. Attached is a screen capture.

Also, not long into the 4th, the trailcam caught the two mice in the wood. They were joined soon after, by two additional mice, with all four being caught together, one of which darted up the Thorny olive tree. Well, now I needed two more names! For one, I've gone for Jerry, from Tom & Jerry. After a little research about Tom & Jerry, I discovered the little baby mouse ( seen in some episodes ) is called "Tuffy", also known as "Nibbles". I think I prefer Tuffy, so Jerry and Tuffy it is ( not that I can tell any of them apart! )

 

Out at the ornamental planter today, some of the Pansies are still alive ( along with some big weeds). I'm not sure if they will flower again or not, but if they survive the Winter, I may move them to a sunnier spot in the wood to make space for something new. I may add some hardy Cyclamen at some point to give some Winter colour, as it looks quite bare right now. We're still learning about planty/growy things, but we're only about three weeks away from being in this house for five years now, so I think we're doing fairly well for jumping in at the gardening deep end.



Up at the top end of the garden, the new borders seem to be doing okay. From the left is Lavender, which while quite bare, has signs of leaves here and there. I don't know if they are new, or left over from last year. There's no signs of the Rhodohypoxis at present. From what I've read, it will be dormant underground. The little Hydrangea is quite bare.

To the right again is the Aubrieta, which I'm pleased is at least putting a little colour into the area, even if it is just green! The Rose is I believe a "Dame Judi Dench" variety. I think this one was a cutting we took from another one in the garden, when we first moved here. Lastly is the Iberis, also giving a nice mound of green. The newly sown grass just in front of this area, was over where the big root geraniums were dug out. None appeared to regrow over the Summer, so I think we must have got all the roots out.



The plants in the border on the other side of the path have stayed more green. There's only two Achillea clavennae ( circled ), which have died back to ground level. Hopefully they'll come back.

In the grey plastic planters, which are currently on the patio, there's the plants for the stream edging. The hardy Cyclamen have died back, except for some leaves which snapped off during planting ( circled ). I shoved the stems into the soil and they seem to be surviving! Also in there are some Daffodils, Campanula and Crocuses.



That's it for stuff going on outdoors. Indoors, after the Christmas pause in decorating, I got back to stripping the first radiator wall and fireplace. Everything was stripped, repaired and repainted, except for the area behind the radiator. This allowed us to keep some heating in the lounge area of the room while I was working.

Once everything in that area was complete, I pulled the radiator off the wall on Monday, repaired the wall behind it and got the first couple of coats of paint on the wall today. A few areas had some fine surface filler tonight and tomorrow, I should be able to sand that and get another couple of coats of paint on. The radiator can then go back on, having only been missing for a few days, rather than for the whole time the wall was being worked on.

 

7th February 2026

When I was out the other day, photographing the Cyclamen, I hadn't noticed that the Crocus shoots in one of the planters, had gone. The crocuses in the other three planters are fine, but all in one planter, were gone.

A quick internet search gave me a list of suspects. Squirrels were first in the list, as they often dig up the bulbs to supplement their winter diet. As I've only seen two squirrels in five years here, that seemed unlikely.

Rabbits were high on the list too, but as I haven't seen the rabbits since the 6th of January, they seemed unlikely.

The list said birds will often peck at the flowers, but they aren't flowering yet and we don't get that many birds on the patio.

The most probably culprit was slugs or snails and we do get a lot of slugs on the patio. The hedgehog has often been seen on the patio during the late evening, slug hunting. Reading up on them, they can eat a surprising amount of crocus leaves in one sitting.

I spotted it late on the 7th, so today, I sprinkled a number of slug pellets into the top of each planter.

Do you think they will survive?


8th February 2026

Today, I went out for a little while, to do some bird photography. I took four of the Primrose plants down to the wood while I was there. I didn't intend on planting them, but just place them around the wood and get some photos, to get a feel for what it could look like. We bought thirty six plants, but Lynne will probably want a few in the ornamental planter, along with the Sweet William.

After a little cloning in my photo editing program, I got a nice splash of colour dotted around various parts of the wood, giving me a feel for how I want it. I think I need to wait at least another month before planting them out.



It was another cold day in the garden, so I didn't plan on staying out for long doing photography, but at least it wasn't raining today. I ended up having two short sessions, with a coffee break between them.

Over the last couple of weeks, while feeding the birds, they had been coming for the seed while I was still fairly close. Rather than being at a distance, or hiding in the observatory, I decided to sit just three feet from the seed pile and see what happened.

While the Blackbirds have been quite timid, they have become a little more bold while I'm there. The Blackbird was the first visitor and with my Nikon D3200 with the Tamron 70~300mm lens, I got a really close view. After processing the RAW image, I realised that Blackbirds have whiskers like cats! Who knew? It's not something I've ever seen before.

A robin was next and I caught that one perched on the tree branch in the pond. That's why I put it there. I'd noticed that many birds will land on a tree first, then fly down to a lower bush, then perhaps a tree stump, gradually getting lower and closer to the food, while maintaining a look out for danger. I've seen the Robin land on the pond branch a few times, but without having my camera handy, I guessed it was only a matter of time until I got the shot.

 

I took quite a few photos, but only a few are included here. The next two are a Dunnock and Bluetit. While the Dunnocks are quite bold, often getting within eighteen inches of me, the Bluetits are scared of everything. Today, none landed at the seed piles. They buzzed around the trees, landing for just a few seconds, before flying to another branch or flying off. As a result, I only got one Bluetit picture, backlit by a bright sky, so not the greatest result.



The next picture is a Dunnock on the ground, with a seed in its beak. While bold, they can be quite fast on the ground, so catching them still for a picture can be a challenge.

I don't know if it was the same Robin as before, but this one landed on the bird feeder, around four feet away. He had his eye on me as he pecked away at the fat balls.



The last pair are the same Blackbirds as before, just in front of the pond and another Dunnock, perched on a tree stump at the back of the wood, beyond the pond and close to the Laurel hedge along the boundary.

 

"Do you think they will survive?" Do you mean the slugs or the hedgehogs? Neither, if you are using slug pellets.

 

The Crocuses! ( The hedgehog is hibernating and won't be back for some time ).

 

9th February 2026

I've been spending again, but this time just a £6 packet of "Air Layering" pods, which arrived on the 9th. I want to try this technique on some evergreens that I already have, to give me some new plants for the bottom of the wood, where it's quite bare over the Winter. These are only 2 inch spheres to give it a go, but if it works well, I may have a go at some larger root balls using the plastic bag method.

After the slug vandalism of a few days ago, I noticed that the eaten Crocuses do have flowers on them now. All the Crocuses are starting to flower in the other three pots too, but I'm particularly pleased the ones with the eaten leaves seem to be hanging on in there.



11th February 2026

I'd read that Hardy Cyclamen like damp but free draining soil. The six in the grey planters weren't looking great. It feels like we've had around a month of rain.

When it was icy in early January, I was hoping for a decent amount of rain to wash the roads clear of the Winter salt, so I could get my military vehicles out for a first test drive of the year. Since the snow and ice went, it appears that we've had rain pretty much every day since. I'm still waiting for a dry day to go out.

Despite the grey planters having drainage holes, the soil and compost in them has been very wet; probably too wet for the Cyclamen. So today, I dug out the sad looking plants and re-potted them in the workshop, with a load of sand and gravel at the bottom of the pots, followed my some fresh, dry potting mix. The remaining soil around the roots was wet enough, but I'm going to keep them indoors under the grow lights, as I can't see any end to this rain.

Three of the Cyclamen look moderately okay, while three are looking very sad. I don't think they were going to last outside under the current conditions, so this is their best chance. The year has started very much like two years ago, when the local farmers had all their Winter crops rot in the fields.



This is one of the planters outside the Sun room door. They are around 15 to 18 inches square and don't have drain holes. It's something I need to do if it stops raining long enough to get the drill outside! Over the last month, I've emptied the water out of this one at least four times.

I let it drain again before collecting my daughter from school today and by the time I got back, the water level was back above the soil. I thought it was a leaking gutter that was filling it, so moved it away from the house, but it's still filling up just as fast!

In the centre of the lower picture, I've added another Cyclamen to the wood, near the pond. This one is a slice from the one on the right of the patio, where the stream will be. Last year, I'd already cut two clumps from it and planted them behind the pond, along with two garden centre plants. The last piece will also be dug out ( when the rain stops ) and moved to the wood, leaving the space for the stream.