Just a few bits and pieces from the garden, quite a miserable selection really. There's a spindly spider in the top of this newly resprouting delphinium. I saw it by accident as I was deadheading, luckily not this creature, though. I have no idea what kind it is, unlike the Hairy Monster in the bathroom sink last night. I put a jamjar over it and slid a card underneath then let it go out of my bedroom window. Not my favourite items but at least I can cope with them, on the whole.
There are two potential 'fishing' cats which come into the garden. One is the prettily marked young cat from next door who's not afraid of anything and interested in everything; the other lives across the road, a young black cat with 4 white socks and a nicely marked face BUT he does like the pond. Since I saw him washing his face and licking his lips he's going to get the blame for this. It must be about the 6th fish I've found dead and/or mangled even though we thought we had netted the pond. Somehow it managed to get through a small gap somewhere. That'll have to be Gillian's first job, if it doesn't rain on Wednesday, when she comes to do jobs in the garden.
The hydrangea has been quite disappointing this year - there's lots of growth, green leaves in abundance but not much in the way of flowers, just these. It covers one of the badger entrances but I haven't seen one of those for about three weeks now.....
We're puzzled by this plant, which is just over 2' tall. There are several around in this part of the garden. It's nothing we've planted but perhaps it is germinated bird seed so we're waiting to see what happens with the flowers, below.
They look as if they'll be spikes.
At last, a butterfly! Or on second thoughts, perhaps it's more likely to be a moth because of the way it's holding its wings. Haven't seen many butterflies (or moths) this year, not even round the outside light...
Here's a plant that's got just a bit mixed up - a primrose in August...
I found a 'Nature Diary' I began keeping in 1995 and continued when I first came here. In 1996 and 97 I'm writing about damsel flies and proper large dragonflies zooming around the garden and over the pond. There were newts in the pond which I'd see from time to time, several frogs and a toad or two, water boatmen, pond snails and other insects paddling on the skin of the pond - where are they now, what's happened? Frogs and the toad(s) can't get into the pond now because of it having been netted but what's happened to the other species? Not as many bees, or even wasps this year. A few lacewings have just put in an appearance but as yet no daddy-long-legs are blundering about. No mullein moth caterpillars this year. Perhaps some of the species will pick up again if we have a mild winter???
(And my followers have disappeared again.....)
it turned out to be a stratagem for luring unsuspecting prey into the web...