Flowering Cactus

Many moons ago I bought  couple of flowering cactus plants.
One is the usual Easter, or maybe Christmas, flowering cactus which hasn't flowered yet.
The other has a more delicate structure:



This has just started flowering.

About 30mm across:



So far I haven't been able to identify it.

First Brood of the Year

I've been watching two pair of Blackbirds collecting food recently. One pair nesting high up in a tree and the other in the nearby hedge. From time to time there has been the occasional altercation as they dispute who has the feeding rights in my garden. Yesterday one family took to the wing so the parents have been chasing around feeding them.

Just a couple of snapshots as the light was fading:





As for the Robins and the watering can - I once spotted a Robin staring back at me from inside the can but otherwise I've not really seen much sign of a nest, eggs or brood.

Cymbidium Orchid Number Two

It is about four weeks since the first Cymbidium orchid opened its flowers.
They are still in full bloom with no sign of fading as yet:



They have now being joined by the first of the flowers to open on the larger plant:



As it has just started opening I expect the colour will improve a bit over the following week.

Nearly in May and the BBC weather forecast for this area for Tuesday to Thursday threatens locally heavy Wintry showers! As it covers all the East Midlands I expect (hope) that will apply more to the higher ground in the Derbyshire Peak District but best to be prepared, just in case. It was only yesterday I put away my snow shovel until next Winter.

An amusing sight I wish I could have photographed last week. A Wood pigeon flew across the garden hotly pursued by a House Sparrow which was only six inches behind the pigeon.  I wish they would do that more often.

Just One

It's about five weeks since I planted the seeds which I hoped would become giant strawberry plants. So far just one has shown signs of life:



Now it's a question of nurturing it to full size and waiting for some runners to produce more plants.

I think I mentioned previously that my wooden lean-to shed was rapidly rotting. I had ordered a plastic shed to replace it. That arrived unannounced yesterday morning so I spent the day demolishing the old and erecting the new:



Astounding what can be achieved with a lump hammer and a wrecking bar!
Plenty of clearing and tidying up left to do once the old joints stop aching a bit.

During the demolition process a movement caught my eye:



One of the garden frogs decided it would be safer to move further away from the action.

Song Thrush

Just happened to glance out of the kitchen window at the right time:







and a bit of video from the previous day:

Greenhouse Flora and Fauna

Over the past couple of years the greenhouse has been more of a junk store than a growing house so the big clear out has started to get it back to the use it was designed for.

Clearing a bench and shelf made room for the 20 strawberry plants which arrived a couple of days ago, 10 earlies and 10 lates, hopefully for a crop of my favourite food next year:





While moving some of the rubbish out I found a mouse nest made from chewed up frost protection fleece and scuttling around a box was this 2 inch (50mm) beauty:



It looks to me to be a Eratigena atrica, sometimes called a giant house spider

Unknown Caterpillar

I am in the process of demolishing a lean to wooden shed as the roof is shot through and the wood rotting. That also gives the opportunity to move a couple of water butts. When I lifted the base of one I spotted this caterpillar hiding underneath:



I made a few attempts at identification but so far drawn a blank. Anyway, see previous post, it's not my month for getting identifications correct. Its length was somewhat over an inch, say about 35mm. After a short while it crept off to find another hiding place.