What a mix of weather we've had of late; sometimes wet and windy, other times sunny and warm. On the kitchen window sill the greater knapweed seed sown on the fourteenth germinated within only four days. Amazing! The betony seedlings sown last autumn are doing well too and some have even appeared in the garden. All of these are taken from the native seed stock of course, and before long they'll be flowering themselves providing more seed to increase our stock, or to give to friends.
Out in the garden things are really buzzing. Under a terricotta pot I found ants nursing their larvae, and during the sunny spells the comfrey and other flowers have been attracting hoards of bees and other insects. The insect below left is a type of hoverfly known as Myothropa florea, whilst the one on the right is a type of mining bee; Andrena haemorrhoa, I think.
Butterflies have been quite frequent too with visits from small whites, an orange tip and the speckled wood photographed on the privit hedge below.
In the pond, the tadpoles remain elusive and only three or four pond scaters have arrived so far. But I had a lovely find today when peering around the water's edge I discovered lots of baby water boatmen no more than two millimetres in length. Many of the plants we planted are beginning to shoot now and water crowfoot is beginning to bloom. On the thirtieth of the month the pond will be one year old and we'll be celebrating accordingly. It's taken time to mature this far, but then that's one of it's joys; enjoying and watching out for the gradual changes.
A total of six slow worms were found in the compost heap today! Slow worms vary in colour but the females can often be identified by the dark stripe down their backs. Like lizards they have the ability to shed the end of their tails when attacked. The tail will regrow but never back to it's original length.