Roaming around the garden with my camera: A longer slideshow
And for those who have problems seeing the slideshows, here is a gallery too:
The demise of the wasps
Remember the wasps that recently made their home in the hollow cross-bar of our washing line? We’d been very much in two minds as to what to do about them… Should we allow them to stay, potentially build an even larger nest, and face an even greater risk of getting stung? Or should we pay…
Spider webs and wasps nests: Unexpected hazards near the washing line
Do you remember the posts I wrote about the two nocturnal spiders who make their nest every evening between our carport roof and the washing line, or thereabouts? December 2009 – Two hyperactive spiders January 2010 – Two hunting spiders February 2010 – Spiders at night Well, I think one of them has left, whereas…
Thirsty bees drinking from the water fountain
We’ve had a couple of hot days in March, and so I’ve been keeping the water fountain in the backgarden flowing, and the various bird baths dotted about under bushes topped up with water.
Thirsty bees
I was working in the garden this afternoon, and had switched on the fountain to encourage bird visitors to splash about in the refreshingly cold water. Instead of birds, though, we were visited by bees – Apis mellifera capensis to be precise. I’d seen an unusual number of dead bees during the last few weeks,…
Miss Scarlet is a very pretty dragonfly
During a recent visit to the Millstone Farmstall at Oude Molen Eco Village, I noticed this little dragonfly in the lavender bushes. After zipping back and forth for a while, it alighted on a lavender spike with its pretty purple flowers, and posed most gracefully for me. I thought it was very pretty, don’t you?…
Bees among the basil
This afternoon, the hot summer breeze was flinging the nose-tickling scent of the flowering basil into the air with cheerful abandon. It is THE herb in my little herb-garden that grows the best and the most prolifically, and that has proved the easiest to propagate by means of cuttings – I literally just stick in…
Scary insect!
I just found this insect lying on the window sill in the bathroom. I have no idea how it got in, because the windows were firmly closed. Initially I thought it looked rather pretty with its antenna all curled up like that, and the wings spread out. But: I am rather freaked out by the…
Is it a twig? Or a Carausius morosus?
It looked as though the south-easter wind had blown a twig against the dark green vibrecrete boundary wall. It was just stuck there, completely motionless. “I think it’s just a twig, but go on, touch it,” hubby said, daring me. “Yeek! It moved!!” What I had taken as a partly split top tip of a…
Eeek! Another hairy caterpillar!
I was ambling through the garden with my camera yesterday afternoon, when I spotted this beautiful chap munching his way along the cotoneaster: He looks a lot more hairy and has a far more striking colourscheme than the hairy caterpillar Tuffy and I spotted two weeks ago. I wonder what kind of butterfly he’s going…
Photo: A strange insect
We met friends at the Millstone Farmstall in Oude Molen Eco-Village last week, and this odd-looking, colourful insect landed on our table. You can click on the thumbnail to see the picture in actual size. It looks like a kind of moth or butterfly, but I have no idea what it actually is. If you…
Photo: Insects mating
Thanks to the recently discovered super-macro mode on our camera, I caught these two insects in flagrante. Now if you have any idea what insect they are, please tell me! For the sake of my plants, I’d like to know if we should be encouraging propagation, or deterring it.
“Die gezoem van die bye…”
Or, in English, “the buzzing of the bees”. Today was the first morning in 7 days that the sky was blue (well, -ish) and the Sun God actually bothered to get out of bed. Yahoo! No more SAD! (I was a bit alarmed to read that around 20% of Irish people – more women than…
A butterfly and a preying mantis
Occasionally, amazing things happen in the garden – like this butterfly landing on a flowering stalk of lavender without noticing the preying mantis right below it. Magic!
Grains of Sand 
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