Category: Gardening
I’m keen on a well-tended garden.
Categories
Wildlife In The Garden
I went out into the garden today and saw a fab-looking spider, so I dashed off to get my camera.
And then a rather large dragonfly, one of the largest that I’ve ever seen, came fluttering past. “Please settle on a leaf somewhere,” I implored. The dragonfly obliged, and stayed there long enough for me to get half a dozen shots.
Categories
Antagonists
If you were in any doubt that I have been neglecting my garden over the last 9 weeks, you’d only need to take one look at it to get the kind of unambiguous evidence that would make Schrödinger himself say “Oh, well that answers that then.”
Upon closer inspection, you’d notice that the ants are taking over the lawn, and I just don’t have the time to do anything about it. Little mounds of earth here and there collapse under a weighty toecap, spraying little scampery chappies hither, thither and ivirywhither.
“Enjoy it, you little scallywags,” I condescend, “because in six weeks you’re going to have a new nemesis to deal with, and he almost certainly won’t be as busy as I am.”
The ants are secretly afraid, but they attempt to cover it up with displays of anty bravado. They waggle their tongues and shake loosely clenched fists at me. Some don’t know when to stop, and just go *too far*. I call the police, and the ants get new ASBOs. Then a huge flying hippo lands on the car, and we all eat jelly.
All of this really happened.
After flowering last year, Snappy is finally starting to return to form, with some decent-sized, healthily-coloured traps.
The bees were working in the lavender with dedication, and wouldn’t stay still long enough for an obscenely close close-up.
Categories
England vs Somebody: Liveblogged!
*Updates will appear at the top.*
**1:48:** Update completed! A few small checks, and then I’m off to the pub for a celebratory pint.
Thanks for joining me for my liveblogging of… something dreadfully exciting. Whatever it was.
**1:29:** The update continues to trundle along at a leisurely pace. The new Ubuntu theme has been installed, so I’m now seeing the new-style window borders and icons, and they are quite pretty.
The battery on this laptop is starting to run low, and I’m reluctant to distract my Ubuntu machine while it is busy, so I may disappear for a while. Perhaps I’ll hunt down the AC adapter for this little fella, or perhaps I’ll go out into the garden and enjoy the sun.
**1:21:** I’ve been positively bukkaked in semaphore for the last 34 minutes. People have been asking when I’m going to post some photos of the neighbour’s cat unfolding paper aeroplanes. Well, I’m sorry to say this, but the paper cut that the cat received was a lot more serious than we initially thought, and the poor pussycat has bled completely dry.
There will be a funeral service on Monday.
Does anyone know of a good cat blood removal service?
The neighbours’ grapevine, set against the backdrop of a clear blue sky.
Categories
Rose Again
It seems like I photograph the same flowers in the garden every year. Maybe one day I’ll have a different garden.
Today I have been in the garden. I have:
* Mowed the lawn
* Fed the new lawn
* Weeded the onion patch
* Weeded one of the flower borders
* Chatted with the neighbours over the fence (see [here][])
* Taken everything out of the shed
* De-cobwebbed the shed ((I used to be terrified of spiders. This task would have been nigh-on impossible.))
* Put everything back into the shed neatly
* Put some more stuff into the shed as I suddenly discovered that I had created loads of space.
* Put [Nippon][] on three ant nests.
* Loitered a bit.
Now for a quick shower, and then off to [Mothercare][].
[here]: http://pete.nu/blog/2006/01/bitten-in-the-posterior-by-an-abstraction/
[nippon]: http://www.vitax.co.uk/productshome.asp?product=HOM016
[mothercare]: http://www.mothercare.com/
Leading the field in the garden, this guy shows the rest how it is done. Some rather pathetic-looking marigold stalks reply "Well, we’d be doing much better too, were it not for all these bloody slugs."