Five Years of Retirement

Not me. Penny. How time flies. Five years since she joined me.
It's a hard life supervising me as I potter round the garden.

My 40 mph couch potato:



Weather yesterday.
Just a bit on the wet side:


More rain (38mm 1.5in) in one day than the whole of last month.
UV has been up to 7 on this scale recently. Well down yesterday.
Same thing with solar radiation which recently reached 700 - 800 watts/sq m..

Scarce Fungus Weevil

Scarce Fungus Weevil - Platyrhinus resinosus

I was about to move a planter I have hanging on the fence when I spotted what at first I thought was a dollup of bird dung but on closer examination turned out to be alive:

 

It was such a strange looking creature the like of which I had not seen before.
I just had to take several photos from different angles to give me a chance of identifying it:













Next job was to find an identification. I ended up on the Naturespot web site and after scrolling through dozens of bug photos eventually found a perfect match.
Size: about 10mm. Common name: Cramp-ball Fungus Weevil.

This weevil is not as scarce as its name would suggest.
You can see more information on this page at Naturespot.
 

 

Orchid Pruning Scissors

Found these little beauties on eBay.
Also on Amazon and could well be available at other places:



Total length about 6.5 inches (17cm) with sturdy sharp stainless steel blades. Spring effective but doesn't need a lot of effort to close the blades and cut flower stems. They are ideal for getting into tight spaces without damaging surrounding foliage.  Soft grip handles are comfortable to hold and use. Not just for Orchids of course. Prices seem to vary between £6 and £9.

Growing

There are quite a few large frog tadpoles swimming round the garden pond:



My one and only large strawberry plant grown from seed continues to develop:



Early strawberry plants (Vibrant), bought bare root and listed as fruiting next year, are producing flowers for this year:



A couple of Outdoor Girl tomato plants in an automatic watering system are now showing their first flower buds:

Poor, But the Best So Far

Had to stop and watch a while when I saw two Swallows flying around as we went walkabout mid-morning today. Fortunately they eventually settled on an old outhouse which is being converted though quite a distance away even on full zoom:



a cropped version:

 

Disappointing clarity though probably the best I've managed to date with Swallow photography.

Red-tailed Bumblebee

Bombus lapidarius, probably a queen, just outside the back door this morning:







Quite lethargic as it was still fairly cool outside.

Wordless Wednesday

Phalaenopsis

Cymbidium