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Hi Sarah, what a gorgeous piccie of these little Starlings. Your garden looks very neat and tidy and I love your palm tree too. Love Chris
by airyfairy
31 Jul 2022
They are not very nice birds Chris. If I go into the garden while they are there, they swoop down on me. The palm tree is a cycad. It was in a pot until a couple of years ago when the baboons smashed the beautiful pot it was in. I never thought with our awful clay soil it would live, let alone grow.
I do not know how your winter has been but ours has been incredibly mild. The garden thinks it is spring.
to look like a tree
by pennifold
31 Jul 2022
Hi Sarah, that's an incredible Cycad, some varieties take years to grow and are one of the oldest plants (I think) on earth.
Here in Australia - "The world’s largest cycad, Lepidozamia hopei is native to north Queensland rainforests and can grow to more than 13m tall. This species is very slow growing with the taller specimens estimated to be 200–300 years old. Early observers of these cycads were perplexed by mysterious ‘left, right, left, right’ indentations up the lower trunks of the seed-bearing, female trees. It has since been established that Aborigines native to the Cairns area had cut these ‘steps’ to enable harvest of the seeds, which
 needed to be beaten and washed extensively to remove their deadly toxicity before they could be eaten."
Our winter has been particularly cold, especially here on the east coast. Everyone has been complaining about how cold it is. Our mornings are the chilliest at 8C, some places have had minus 4!! The day gets sunny and now that August is here, you know that Spring is just around the corner.
My Jonquils have been exceptional this year and as of today I've picked 17 dozen, I've surpassed last year's total. I love the smell of them and my home is full of them. Love Chris
by airyfairy
31 Jul 2022
It is a very ordinary cycad and it’s trunk had doubled its length since I planted it in the garden. Has new fronds every year. We do not get Jonquils here, which is strange.
234253What a beautiful picture! I'm glad they stopped to visit you. I hope you get to enjoy them for a while.
168893Now have they escaped from the hot UK weather and are thirsty after a long flight? Love your garden. What is the tree in the middle of the picture please?
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