I was lucky enough to get a picture of this lovely dragonfly in my garden the other day whilst it was resting on a branch. We get a lot of dragonflies in our garden but this is by far the biggest one I have seen this year. Google suggests its a Golden Ringed Dragonfly.
Category: garden
Apples and Blackberries
One of my favourite times of the year is when the cooking apples are ready for picking. This year just as we starting to pick the first apples there is a glut of blackberries available in the hedgerows in the local area. Taking advantage of the extra time we have over the Summer Holidays, we…
Lord Sackville’s Private Gardens at Knole House
We recently visited Lord Sackville’s private gardens at Knole House. The gardens are only open a few days each year and need to be booked in advance on the National Trust website for an additional fee. This is the second time we have looked around them, the first being last August when unfortunately we were…
New Bird Table
The old bird table which was here when we moved into our house around 15 years has served us well but following a series of unfortunate accidents both weather and cat related it was looking increasingly battered. I purchased this new one recently from the RSPB website. I took it out of the box today…
Gardening Tasks for March
On reading my copy of Gardeners World I came across an interesting article by Monty Don on what gardening tasks need doing in March. It has already occurred to me that I need to get outside and make a start but this has given me a gentle reminder. The first thing he suggests is to…
Frog Spawn
One of the first signs of spring for me is always the arrival of the frogs. Normally we see them in the pond mid February with the first spawn arriving soon after. They are a bit late this year but seem undeterred by the recent snow. The first frog spawn finally arrived this week, so…
Asparagus
Its asparagus season again and the third year since we planted ours in the garden. The harvest is small but every few days we have a handful of asparagus spears ready to eat. They are so good they need little done to them, so we have been lightly steaming them or eating them topped with…
Giving up the Allotment
Time is at a premium in our household at the moment and finding any time to do anything other than look after the children is a real issue. Our weekends are now generally reserved for family time which is somewhat precious and something has to give somewhere. With this in mind we have decided to…