Coming into flower now, after dropping its leaves in the very early spring, is the profusely flowering wild honeysuckle-tree. Flowering on bare stems with the new leaves just starting to sprout it puts on a lovely show.
Continue reading “The wild Honeysuckle-tree flowering abundantly”
Store cupboard items can produce fresh salad ingredients within two days. That is the magic of seed germination – otherwise known as sprouting. Continue reading “Salad in the cupboard: Sprouting lentils”
Long-nosed Tangle-veined Flies need to be accurate on the wing when hovering to line up the long proboscis to suck nectar from tubular flowers. These amazing flies are interesting to watch and tricky to photograph. Continue reading “Hovering with intent: Tangle-veined Flies and the art of nectaring”
A persistent and insistent tseep-tseep-tseep outside the bedroom window attracted my attention. Looking out I saw a fledgling perching on top the fence to the cat’s garden, calling repeatedly, reminding its parent to feed it. Continue reading “A hungry baby flycatcher and its hardworking mother”
Plucky and petite, Southern Black Flycatchers are one of the most engaging of the uniformly black birds that visit our garden. Continue reading “Favourite garden birds: Southern Black Flycatcher”
Completely dormant in the winter, in the very early spring the leaves of the River Crinum emerge, forming a crown of long green straps. And then a green spear emerges rising to almost a metre in height as the buds start forming at the tip, eventually opening into white and pink lily-like flowers. Continue reading “In the pink in the spring: River Crinum”
Birds sunbathe too – not all species, but many do. Continue reading “Birds do it – sunbathe that is”
The glossy red berries of the Solanum giganteum provide satisfaction for birds during the winter months when conditions can be harsh. Continue reading “Winter satisfaction”
Banded Tilapia gather together to sun themselves near the surface of our pond. Continue reading “Fishpond Collage”
letting nature back in 