Monthly Archives: March 2017

I think I may have gone a little off-piste with this photo of the Mother’s Day flowers I received from the Offspring last weekend: I was trying to give a sense of their charming yet casual springiness, but I fear … Continued

I already had a handsome Hawthorn Shieldbug (Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale) for you – discovered in one of the nettle patches in the wild garden (not that there aren’t also nettle patches in the supposedly tidy garden, but in the far garden … Continued

Signs of spring in Stratford today: Trees coming into leaf. People sitting by the river to eat their lunch. The rowing boats reappearing at the landing stage next to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Hordes of French schoolchildren (they always seem … Continued

As this border of our front garden is only a few yards from the verge where I photographed an Andrena cineraria at the weekend, it’s probably the same individual, continuing to look after the area he’s marked out as his … Continued

What’s black and white and re[a]d all over? I’m giving away my age again – my childhood was filled with stupid jokes like this, and despite the fact that I can’t remember a single actually funny joke (and if I … Continued

This is the photo I tried and failed to capture yesterday, of a tiny Andrena fulva queen feeding from a gooseberry flower. As you can see it’s a much more sensible proposition for her than for the huge Bombus hypnorum … Continued

I didn’t sleep well after the excitement of our London trip and the Chris Thile gig, and woke tired and fractious, and very unenthusiastic about the prospect of singing Poulenc in front of an audience. R and I started the … Continued

You know how it is: some days are better than others, but most lie within the realms of the ordinary, and over time merge with the mass of material within your memory banks – so that without a blip journal … Continued

Yesterday evening it stopped raining, the sky cleared, and the night was misty and bitterly cold. Today was still cold, and mainly cloudy, but occasionally the sun did emerge, and at lunch time I thought it might be worth taking … Continued

So what do you do when you’re desk is covered with things that need doing more or less urgently, but you want to go out to play in the garden with the bugs – but there are no bugs because … Continued