Spot the Kingfisher. If they didn't have that flash of blue and orange they'd be so hard to see in flight.

What a lovely end to the year, a frosty walk in bright sunshine. Especially delighted that the local Kingfisher turned up, lighting up the lake with its bright blue and orange feathers.

Between Christmas and New Year I like to look at my favourite wildlife moments of the last twelve months. This is from last January when the wildlife cam captured the Dog Fox and Vixen nuzzling each other on the lawn. Love having the little Fox family visiting my garden.

Yesterday morning got my power tools out to fix a broken kitchen unit and this morning baked a Victoria Sponge, love this random period of time between Christmas and New Year... #JoinIn

How's everyone doing? My daughter's just gone off to work (she's a support worker), so it's just me and the cats, who are very happy with their Christmas present 🩶 I'd love to see more festive animals x #JoinIn

Good morning #JoinIn folks. I hope everyone is doing ok. Cold one here, wrapped up in my biggest jumper. Don't forget to post with #JoinIn and say if you would like someone to chat to today, it can be a tough one for many reasons. Also, let me know what time is acceptable to start eating pickles...

Every year on Christmas Eve I drive my elderly mum around town looking at the Christmas lights everyone has up on their houses. It's become a lovely tradition...costs nothing, except a little petrol, but makes us very happy and festive. #JoinIn

How is everyone this Christmas Eve? I've left the stressful shops behind and am happy to now be at home hanging out with the weird folk of the christmas tree. The garden birds are fed and happy, and I'll be eating too many pickles shortly. #JoinIn

Oh and the other annual reminder that photos of your pets are always very gratefully received by everyone on the #JoinIn feed, love to see them 🐶🐱🐹🐰🐴🦎

Your annual reminder that if you want someone to chat or have a laugh with over the Christmas period there will be lots of folk on the #JoinIn and #DuvetKnowItsChristmas threads. 🎄

December garden beauties. Iceberg Rose, still flowering after all these months, what an incredible plant. A stunning carpet of Acer leaves. Tiny pink and white Cyclamen popping up all over the place. Purple Vinca creeping around the border. #GardeningForWildlife #pesticidefreegardening

Vixen didn't take long to flatten down my winter wildife leaf pile and make herself a bed. She was resting there for 3 hours the other night, must be very comfortable. #FoxOfTheDay

Create it and nature will use it. A large pile of leaves lifted off the path and placed in the border next to a tree. By day, a place for Squirrels to stash nuts and birds to find grubs. By night, a place for mammals both tiny and large to forage and rest. #GardeningForWildlife #FoxOfTheDay

Winter sky over the water at Hanningfield Reservoir.

Some of the beautiful new paintings by Dan Llywelyn Hall forming The Green Bell Jar exhibition currently on at Hanningfield Nature Discovery Centre, Essex (last day tomorrow), supporting the Bottengoms project.

Feeling festive in London today...

Still from video cam a short while ago, one of our suburban garden Foxes retrieving stashed meat from behind the Mulberry tree. The leaves in front are the pile I have created for wildife to use over winter, have to keep adding to it though as the Foxes are using it as a bed too... #FoxOfTheDay

Things I'm loving in the garden at the moment...Holly & Pyracantha covered in berries for birds, Mahonia & Fatsia flowers giving vital nectar and pollen, crisp frosty mornings and splashes of purple as Violets start appearing everywhere...

Cleared main path area of leaves today to avoid slipping when they get wet (storm coming). Used them for a big pile for wildlife to use over winter and the rest put in green bags with holes cut in to make mulch for next year. All the leaves on the borders and side paths will be left where they are 🍂

An autumn view at RHS Hyde Hall, Essex.

Narrowboats on the canal, Bethnal Green, London.

The rain is bouncing off an object somewhere in the street outside so loudly that I want to run out in my nightie and tear the entire neighbourhood apart until I find the source and destroy it...that's how my night is going... 😂

My Froggy friends. The one on the right is the Froglet born this year. 🐸🐸

Gentian flower. Such vivid blue flowers, they were loving the autumn sunshine today.

Autumn Crocus. Another one you can put in for late season pollen and nectar for pollinators. Plus they look lovely and remind you spring and the other Crocuses won't be that far away.

Autumn abstract...leaves in the garden.

The Michaelmas Daisies (Asters) are in full bloom, fantastic flowers for pollinators at this time of year.

Tower Bridge opens to let a barge through today, it was lovely to watch. What a piece of engineering, Tower Bridge is 131 years old this year.

Down by the river...a walk along the Thames, London, today.

Don't believe the nonsense from certain quarters...us Londoners are mostly just getting on with our lives in our beautiful, inclusive, diverse, tolerant, city. #London

In my autumn garden...

A Petunia from the sky range, beautiful splash of colour in the garden.

I never get an apple from the little tree, the Blue Tits peck them and then the Foxes and Squirrels steal them once they're ripe!

I find balls hidden all around the garden by the Foxes, this one is stashed behind my pond... Fox treasure.

My friend Frog being froggy...

Autumn walks...

Love the early autumn fresh blue sky days.

If you want drought tolerant, UK winter surviving, low maintenance, pollinator friendly plants for a sunny space I can't recommend woody Salvias highly enough. These have been blooming for months now and will carry on well into autumn. Beautiful plants, I'm obsessed.

There's a rush to tidy gardens at this time of year but if you can keep hips & seedheads, maybe some logs & branches, for autumn winter your wildlife will be very grateful. Birds will feed on hips & seeds, and insects and mammals can overwinter in branches, logs and hollow stems. It really helps.

Still managing to keep the Bees happy as we head into Autumn.

Once again... I can fall asleep absolutely anywhere else but as soon as I go to bed no chance...just me? This gif on repeat is literally me all night, maybe beds aren't for everyone... 😂 #WideAwakeClub

Really interesting article. The UK will also need to do a lot more. For me a key area will be promoting the importance of people keeping mature trees in their garden, so many healthy trees being cut down for no good reason, it will impact everyone moving forward. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Couldn't miss a chance to see the Saga Farmann, an archaeological reconstruction viking ship ending a two year journey in London, and as it turned out we could get on it too and it was fantastic having a look around this beautifully built vessel.

I'm struggling a bit in the heatwave but the Sunflowers are enjoying it 🌻

Ok, 6 hours of Saturday gardening completed 🌿🏵🌱...feet up with a cup of tea listening to music. Hit me with your greatest song I've probably never heard of suggestions, what should I be listening to this Saturday night? 🎶🎵🎶 #TopTunes

Hibiscus, purple and white. Even though the white is a double it still has a large Bee fan club, as you can see, the centre is still accessible.

Thank you to Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 for showing up and taking a stand this weekend. We loved the signs, so many of them made us laugh. This weekend showed that the resistance is growing and that we have friends everywhere! Scotland the Brave!

lol

Thank you to the fantastic team at @sewh.bsky.social for the care given to Hedgehog over the last two months. She is now back home in the hedge at the bottom of the garden. So happy to be able to bring her back and she looked very excited to be home, she started exploring immediately. 🦔