Cross between a teddy bear and a bee. They move as packs through lavender bushes garnering nectar at high speed. Spotted in Italy.
Category: Dogs or wildlife
The Death of Crumpet
I remember her arrival vividly. Ticking the weeks off on my fingers, it’s possible to work out the date accurately: the first week in May. Penny had died in March and the reordering of patterns of existance and chattels, the dog needed a new home. Could we look after her? Take her for…
In praise of Blotanical.com with animal chorus
As a self-confessed techno-phobe and luddite, I feel I am on the pig’s back with lovely www.blotanical.com. It’s the website for people blogging about gardens all over the world. Can’t quite think why this new hobby of blogging came upon me. Computers? URLS? RSS feeds? All a dense fuzz in the brain’s recesses. I give…
Drat that bracken
The first world war turned bracken into a serious menace. The exodus of agricultural workers from the land and with that, gone was the regular cutting back of this plant. Pteridium aquilinum. Long out of print, ‘Weeds and Aliens’ by Sir Edward Salisbury, tells it straight: “one of the more noxious weeds of better drained…
Elephants and green walls
These elephants are made of fibre-glass, have been painted by artists and are to be auctioned by a charity, Elephant Family, that is out to save the Asian elephant. Asian elephants are much better behaved than African ones. (who undoubtedly need saving too as they have fallen foul of the poacher for their tusks and…
Hurray samphire time again
The question is: which is better with dressed crab – this or asparagus? Perhaps this, as every time the dogs get into the veggie patch, they chomp the asparagus tips. The samphire on the foreshore – we walked out there this evening – got left alone.
Owlish horror this weekend
At the last tree, the dog came off the lead. Imnediately she retrieved live to hand. A small thing with big eyes. A baby owl. I picked it up. Smaller in my hands than the puffed up feathers would have you believe. Our house is just up the track. Fetched it back to a…
Bird on Head series one: Robert Adam
This is Edinburgh. Overwhelmingly grey but lovely. Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. Adam, not the seagull.
A stunning oppo to see the washed and brushed side of farming at Yesterday’s Suffolk SHow
The Suffolk Show yesterday. Hmmmmmmm – the washed and brushed side of farming. Of a morning, If not completely zombied out, Radio 4 Farming Today is my aural cup of Ovaltine. Frequently the drink goes cold and I don’t hear what that lovely breathless lady presenter is saying. But enough gets through the…
Hippopotamus motions a table this week at Chelsea Flower Show
Dine out on it?