[David Dickinson]

I wish I could shed my old skin just as easily as your chameleon!

On another note, as every good gardener knows, the best place to dry out slightly damp seeds is on kitchen roll spread out on the kitchen table. Flat mate in lock down in Ireland so nobody around to put a spanner in the works. Or so I thought. I woke up the following morning to find our six-legged friends were just carrying away the last of my Salvia farinacea seeds!

[Charithea]

Don't dispear David. They will grow somewhere in your garden in the spring. I dry my seeds by putting them in Big paper bags and leave them outside because if I spread them  on the table my 5 cats will carry them around the house and garden on their fur. On the other hand David my Salvia farinacea did so badly and  the seeds were all lost. The ready bought plants are never very successful in our garden and neither are growing them from seeds.

[Charithea]

A most welcome visitor to our garden is this baby hedgehog sitting in John's gloved hand. Our only female cat was watching it moving among the Hemerocallis lillies and John moved it to a safer place. The other photo is of two beautiful kittens drinking water while the grey one was eating out of our cats' dish. I adore kittens but these perishes, which arrived uninvited, have flattened our Tulbaghia violaceae and terrorized our cats. The kittens arrived with the new owner of the old house adjacent to the western side of our garden. I was told by the owner that the kittens were motherless but she was planning to keep them which made me very happy. Alas the owner went to town and left the kittens so we ended up looking after them for 2 weeks as they preferred our hospitable garden and the wires in our kitchen.  I sadly was forced to ask her to take them home with her and bring them back when she finally repaired the house and took up residence here.

[David Dickinson]

This thread started with a posting about what I presumed was a male carpenter bee of some kind. It was dive-bombing any other insect that visited flowers in its territory. Another has taken up territory in the garden this year. He attacked a wasp and a battle ensued. The wasp appeared to sting the bee many time as the 2 of them span round and round attached to a petal by one leg of the bee. Evidently the exoskeleton of the bee was strong enough for the sting not to penetrate , The bee flew off seemingly unscathed.

[Umbrian]

Interesting and well observed - so much  goes on in our gardens apart from our efforts- some of it beneficial and some less so. I am beginning to get very frustrated with the ever increasing amount of Blackbirds that consider my garden home. Lots of young ones about now and they are causing havoc pecking in my pots  despite a generous layer of gravel on the top and even attcking my cuttings box.  Much as I have enjoyed watching their progress I am beginning to wish the parents would send them off to find their own territories😊

[John J]

Not exactly the species of wildlife you expect to find in a garden in this part of the world. Came across this character yesterday. No idea where he came from, he is a he confirmed by our local vet this morning who gave him the once-over and clipped his long nails. None of our neighbours, near or far, keep guinea pigs. Currently he's in the compound with our tortoises while we consider what to do with him. May end up with our 9 year old granddaughter, although her Papa probably won't be too keen on the idea!

[John J]

The only time we see tree rats in our garden are when the cats leave dead ones they've caught. However we do sometimes see what they have been up to. Had to harvest the fruit from our avocado tree before they got to the rest of them.

[John J]

We have 5 cats, 4 males and 1 female (although all have been operated on). I just stepped out of the kitchen door to find 4 of them sitting/standing observing the other 1 confronting a snake. Not a large snake, only around 60/70 cms and not much thicker than a pencil. Unfortunately I did not have my camera handy and the snake soon decided that the best option was to hightail it out of the area as fast as it could slither. The interesting thing was which of the cats had assumed the task of taking on this intruder. I doubt you'll need 3 attempts to guess the gender of the cat in question.

[John J]

Basking in the sun on the sill outside my 'office' window.

[David Dickinson]

Stellagama stellio (I think it is, John) would probably make light work of my first Cleopatra butterfly. A female. Very welcome in my garden but I haven't seen it since last week as the wonderful spring weather we were having has gone. For the moment, we are back to wet, cloudy and decidedly cold early mornings :-(

[John J]

Yesterday I noticed that one of our blue irises was about to open the first flower of the season. This morning I went out to see how it was progressing only to find this character with its head buried deep in the bud making a meal of it. Definitely not welcome unless it turns into a butterfly, in which case I might be more forgiving.

[David Dickinson]

A very welcome newcomer to my garden yesterday. I didn't know we had them in the area. A female Clouded Yellow on Erysimum "Super Bowles mauve

[David Dickinson]

Excuse me, a male Clouded Yellow.

[John J]

A very welcome visitor spotted this morning on our Duranta erecta 'Sweet Memories'. We haven't had a lot of Swallowtails over the last couple of years. The photo is a bit fuzzy as I had to take it as a snapshot because it wouldn't stay still to be photographed.

[Umbrian]

Saw my first one this week John- this one on Erysium 'Jep's Red' showing the value of this wonderful family of plants to provide early succour - the flowers are often covered  with various flying insects. I was delighted to see the Swallowtail as we are now in the centre of a small town but it had sought me out to feast on the variety of plants on offer in my small patch.