New Camera

A few photos taken around the garden with my new Canon Powershot G16.  They started off a bit blurry, but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

First a few photos of dye plants in the garden.  Above, my first double magenta hollyhock flower, seeds generously donated by Fran from Wool - Tribulations of Hand Spinning and Herbal Dying (you can visit her blog by clicking the link on the sidebar to the right); and below, Dyer's Chamomile flowers which have self-seeded all over our car parking area.

These are Bramley apples (English cooking apples) fattening up nicely :-

and a small part of this year's garlic harvest :-

These last two really were just "point and shoot" as the butterfly wouldn't stay still long enough to concentrate on having its photo taken!

So, I'm happy with my first attempts, but I really need to spend some time learning how to use this camera properly.

Caterpillars in March?

I was a bit surprised the other day when I was in the garden and found this clump of caterpillars underneath my olive tree, in the grass.

I've never seen any like this before, and certainly not at this time of year; it seemed a bit early to me.  They didn't seem to be moving around much, just stayed where they were eating grass stalks and weeds.

I've looked on the internet, but can't find out what they are.  If anyone knows, please leave a comment.

A French friend of ours was here today and I showed him the photographs.  He looked a bit aghast, and said to cut off the branch of the tree where I found them, and burn it!  But they weren't on a branch,  they were in the grass under the tree.  I'm a bit worried about my olive tree now - obviously they're harmful.  Oh well, maybe I'll just have to treat the whole tree.   

Butterflies and Buds

Found this gorgeous caterpillar the other day on my fennel in the garden.

I've been searching the internet to try and find out which butterfly it will become, and all information seemed to point to it being a black swallowtail.  The problem is, I've only ever seen white swallowtails here, so maybe that's what it is.

The other news is, I've finally finished the Buds of May shawl.  I've had lots of problems with this pattern, mainly because the whole thing was a series of charts, which I find very difficult to follow, especially when they have you constantly referring to other charts for parts of each row.  I'd rather have a written pattern any day.  It was pretty accurate though (my problems usually stemmed from my lack of understanding of the pattern, and I'm not what you would call a "beginner" by any means), but I did find a few errors in the last 4 or 5 rows.  I just followed my instincts there, and it worked out OK.

Preliminary photo (there'll be a final "showy" one when I've had time to sew in the ends and block it) :-

I only realised when I got near to the end of this, just how much wool I have left.  I think I could easily have done the next size up, but there's no way I'm taking it back now!

The next shawl is definitely for me - just have to work out which fleece I'll use, then spin it!  Will it be a Buds of May?  Probably, because I do really like the pattern.  Next time, though, it'll be a lot easier . . . I wrote out the pattern as I went along (a real labour of love that was!) so it definitely should be easier to do.

Spider Frosting

A topical little post this, as we're in the frozen north of Scotland - which it actually isn't at the moment, just a bit frosty this morning and lovely blue skies.

Here are a few photos I took in our garden over a week ago when we had a couple of hard frosts in the morning.  My fascination with spider's webs again (must be the spinning half of my brain)!

These were all taken around our log pile,

and they were all frozen.

This is the one that caught my attention first, it was a real spaghetti junction of webs.

The weed seed heads were all frozen too, but they just couldn't compare with the spun ice webs.

Where Did All the Spiders Go?

Remember in August I found a couple of argiope spiders in the garden?  They were the yellow and black ones which make the large webs with a zigzag pattern running down the middle.

Yes, that's the one!
There was actually a second one just behind it but not visible in this photo.










Well yesterday I went looking for them and found four of these :-

I came back into the house and Googled "argiope spiders" to see if they hibernated, and if so, were they inside here.  It turns out that these are egg sacs - can you imagine the work those spiders had to make these? and then lay eggs in them?  Amazing creatures.  If I hadn't known that the spiders had been there in the first place I would have assumed they were seed pods from a plant.

I seem to be developing a fascination for spiders and their webs, mainly since I got my new camera and can take fairly close-up shots, but I don't really like them in the house, especially when I hoover away the cobwebs one day and find they're back again the next. They're OK out in the garden though.

Surviving the Heat

For the last 3 days we've been sweltering in heatwave conditions over here. It's been 43 and 44 deg. C. in the shade every day.  It's surprising though just how much wildlife there is around.  I found a really interesting-looking spider this morning which had made a massive web between two water butts :-

I don't know the name of this spider (maybe someone out there does?), but I call it a scribble spider because they always have a scribbly bit above and below where they sit on the web.

(Apparently, it's an argiope spider - thanks Ken!)

Then this little charmer came to have a look at me while I was watering the garden :-

There were lots of green preying mantis amongst the grass, and this one was the same colour as the house wall :-

Oh, and then this character turned up to see what I was doing :-

It's a hard life!

Luckily, he didn't notice the preying mantis, otherwise he'd have eaten them - nice juicy little snacks!

My Messy Garden

Finally got around to sowing all my vegetable seeds the other day.  A bit late, I know, but the nice thing about living down here is that things catch up very quickly.

I've sowed lots of tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, chillies, peas, aubergines, melons, pumpkins, butternut squash and lots of other edibles.  Plus lots of basil (for Eric) and lots of coriander (for me).   Also put in some woad seed which is now 2 years old, so I hope it grows.

Meanwhile, the redcurrants are coming along nicely . . .

. . . as are the leeks and garlic :

Oh, and here is our future greenhouse

Ah, I hear you say, but isn't that a swimming pool?  Well, yes, a very large, derelict swimming pool which was going to cost an absolute arm and a leg to renovate and maintain.  So, we decided the best option (especially as my greenhouse got blown away twice in gales!) was to put a polycarbonate roof on it and call it a greenhouse.  Work in progress!


We were at a friend's house one night last weekend and it was nice enough to sit outside for the whole evening.  This little chap (chapess?) joined us and stayed for the whole party

It's blowing a gale here today so I now have to decide whether to go and cut the grass anyway, dig the vegetable beds, or stay inside and do the ironing, bake some bread, clean the bathroom or take the day off and spin!  Decisions, decisions . . .