Pond and Insect Life

I will have to do a proper catch up post soon, but in the meantime, these two dragon flies were spotted near the pond yesterday. 

I believe this is the Yellow-Winged Darter

This largish dragonfly was busy depositing eggs.

I am not positive about this one, but I think it is the Gold-ringed Dragonfly.

A grasshopper, not sure what particular one it is.

Family!

My family have come down to spend a week with me which is lovely, although I think they brought the bad weather with them!  We had the most rain in the morning than we have had in months, and it is also very windy.  Fortunately the rain eased up in the afternoon so we were able to go for a walk down to the local bay.

My lovely daughter in law, son and hubby, along with Percy and Stanley.

Stanley wasn't too sure about the pebbles on the beach, and his coat really caught the wind.

Percy enjoyed having a good sniff of the salt air.

It is my daughter in law's birthday today, so I cooked a lovely roast dinner in my AGA - the first, and I have to say it was rather successful.  I can see many more roast dinners during the winter months for sure.

We enjoyed a fun game of Ludo in the evening and had a good laugh.  So lovely to have family here.

Blustery Walk.

Come for a walk with me on a blustery afternoon

Through the sun dappled woods.

Down to the bay where the waves come crashing in to the shore

It is high tide 

the waves vary in size, but the noise is pretty loud.  I need to work out how to put a video up on here.

Too high to walk round my normal route.

Back home a little later...

I spy a Jersey Tiger Moth as I went out the back garden.  It was on the ivy on our retaining wall.

I have never seen one of these before.  It is so attractive, and when its wings are open it has red underwings and can be mistaken for a butterfly.

Tuesday Time.

What a really lovely day it has been.  Gorgeous blue sky, and nice and warm, but not too hot.

I've trimmed the clematis that was going a bit wild on the front decking and mowed the front lawn and the first level of the back lawn.  

Although the grass wasn't overly long, and very dry, the weeds were getting rather tall.  It looks so much better now.

The pond is looking colourful with the pretty pink fuchsia flowering behind it. 

The greens are very much reflected in the sunlight today.

The sea looks beautiful .

I went for a walk along the cliff top coastal path.

Love the views up here.  Sea to one side

Fields to the left.

I might try and paint this farm house nestled down in the valley at some stage.

Monday Monday

Gosh I haven't blogged for so many days - not sure where they keep disappearing to!

The highlight of my  morning was seeing a red squirrel running across my driveway from the garden (and I am guessing the bird feeder with nuts), up onto the bins and then the hedge.  Unfortunately I didn't have my camera handy, but it was so exciting to see it.  Nice to know that we have them in our location.

Next highlight was spotting a little toad whilst I was trimming one of the hedges near the pond.  First toad I have seen here as well.

I forgot to take a before photo, but there were branches sticking up all over the rounded bush.

Much neater now.  I also found an old brass fountain underneath it.  I will have to clean it up and see if it works.

I decided to tidy up this area at the front of the decking.

After getting that prickly busy tangled up in my hair, which took some getting out I eventually managed to get rid of it and dug it over as best as I could.  The ground is still very hard as we have had very little rain.

Some more water lilies.

Love watching the wildlife.

Some photos from Sunday's walk below:

It rained in the morning (15 mm) but the sun came out in the afternoon, so took the opportunity to go for a nice walk.  There were others who had the same idea.

Today's walk:

Through the woods.

Down to the beach.

A seat to sit a while

to take in the view, and the sound of the sea.

Wednesday Words & Pictures.

Does anyone know what this weed (?) is growing in my front lawn?  it is the only part of the lawn that is actually green!

It is starting to cover quite a large patch of lawn.

These are the flowers

Blue sky!  The solar panels have been working hard the last few days.

Always beautiful.

The gunnera is looking better now I have trimmed off the dead leaves and given it a good water.  I also spotted at least five goldfish in the pond today, so they are still there!  They weren't visible for long though.

Spider with some prey.

The pears are starting to look good, need to get a bit bigger yet though, they aren't as 'big' as they look in these two photos.

I picked this apple!

The grapes.

I now know what the circular 'clumps' in the orchard are...they are cyclamen...whatdoyacallits.

I think this is brussels?  I need to check my planting notes.

On my walk...

Down at the beach, gorgeous.

I went for a paddle and wished I'd had my swimsuit and a towel as it was so hot down there.

Actually it has been so hot all day, another scorcher for sure.

Just so beautiful.

A bit of excitement to watch on my walk home... a helicopter hovering

a boat speeding a long

Just cruising...

Helicopter getting closer.  I thought it was a police helicopter, but when I uploaded the photos I saw...

...it was a coastguard helicopter.

It seemed to 'chase' after the boat

and then hover over the top of it for a very long time.  But they are both coastguard vessels, so thinking perhaps they were doing some kind of training exercise.

Pretty as a butterfly in the sun.

Dry fields with an 'anvil cloud' (cumulonimbus incus) in the distance...I wonder if thunder is coming? It is forecast to.

Still cruising along...

Some teasels.

Not a particular active day apart from my walk, but better than yesterday.  The heat was just way too much for me yesterday and I ended up with a bad migraine and stomach discomfort.  Fortunately it didn't last too long, the tablets did the trick.