Smile for the camera...happy Fox...

Iris season...

My Mum's beautiful Lilac, from a plant that grew in her childhood garden 💜

Trip to the British Museum today, always an architectural treat, stunning building. Went to see the Sufi Life & Art exhibition and the Early Netherlandish Drawings exhibition, both fascinating, and also saw many other interesting and beautiful things along the way.

Lilac Moon

A Robin fledgling in the garden, closely watched by a parent bird. Nice to see at least one successful fledgling as they have been working very hard delivering food to the nest.

Bluebell season. I wish I could share the fragrance with you too...

Now the last hard frost is over I could put the little solar water fountain out. The small birds love splashing in the lowest bowl and insects drink from the top tiers as they are safe from falling into water. It will be cleaned and the water changed regularly while it's out.

I mean the inside of the red Tulip is pretty, but the absolute insect mayhem going on inside my orange one makes it my winner of the day. No garden pesticides here, other insects and birds will keep numbers down.

A garden Spider sunning itself

Love in the Cherry tree, Collared Doves.

The garden was full of tiny life today...

The Fox family are still thriving, visiting at night and sometimes during the day. Delighted to see my matriarch Vixen back (pic 1) and clearly showing that she is feeding cubs.

About a week until the Bluebells are fully out here I think...

Bird beauties from this weekend...Greylag Goose, Chaffinch, Mallard, Feral Pigeon.

Reflective...

Dozens of these Bees in the garden at the moment. I think they are Early Mining Bees but if anyone can confirm that would be great. Very calm Bees and they are generally buzzing around the lawn and low plants.

One of the many Pigeons visiting the garden, proper little characters.

The Wild Cherry tree is now covered in thousands of blossoms and many happy pollinators (as you may see in pic 4). A real highlight of spring in the garden.

Ants enjoying a rotting Pear. The Foxes will clear it away tonight, they love Pears.

Those pesky flower fairies, cutting windows into my Snakeshead Fritillaries... 🧚‍♂️

One pathway, three different types of visitor, smile for the camera...

Vixen has disappeared and so I suspect is busy with cubs. This was the first sighting of two Fox cubs together last year, it was June. Can't wait to meet the new faces this year.

This is absolutely brilliant. Instigated by Gordon Brown, delivered today. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I adore Mackenzie Crook's writing, I've watched Detectorists countless times, so I had a feeling I'd ♥️ Small Prophets and I truly did. Beautifully observed everyday life and frustrations mixed with magic and heart, and his usual love of nature threaded throughout...wonderful...bring on series 2 🌿

Blossom season, London 🌸

As spring moves forward more and more flowers appear. Narcissus Thalia, Scilla, Hyacinth & Leucojum.

Violets, little garden beauties...

Flowers appearing in every corner of the garden, love this time of year. This shady area is where Bees sleep over winter. Once my bulbs are in during autumn I don't touch it again until summer, and sometimes I hear buzzing and feel the ground vibration as they wake... 🐝

Japanese Quince, a splash of spring scarlet. The Euphorbia beneath wasn't planted there, it wandered in from a neighbour, but I quite like the vivid green of that against the red.

Plant sunshine, Forsythia in bloom. An indicator that spring is here and also that it's time to prune your Roses (except the ramblers).

The joy of a favourite Orchid flowering once again. Used to have terrible trouble getting them to bloom more than once but have now found a window that seems to give the right light, so all the dormant ones live on a storage box there now until buds appear.

Never give up...tiny signs of life appearing from an African Violet plant I thought had gone weeks ago but kept looking after just in case...

How beautiful to be out under a blue sky today...finally... this Blackthorn was full of Bees and also had two Butterfly visitors spring is arriving...

The weather is endlessly grey at the moment, but you can still find so much beauty if you get out for a walk.

Winter purples...💜

One of my fave plants Cyclamen Coum. Patches of pink or white bloom in January just when you need a splash of colour and cheering up. Left alone they will spread, no work needed. It's hardy & shade tolerant. Most importantly it's an early source of nectar for pollinators. Pics from today.

Snowdrops and Crocuses brightening up the garden.

Winter feels very loooong, but soon the garden will be buzzing again.

That's my @rspb.bsky.social Big Garden Birdwatch completed for another year. A brilliant UK citizen science project surveying birds in your garden for 1 hour each year. Most of my regulars turned up, a few missing. Over 4 million birds already counted this weekend,time to log in and add my results.

I went with the giant pacific octopus for this week's #完全変態. #虫

The night shift...garden security and lawn worm removal...

Winter light, a trip to the coast.

Even in Jan there's stuff to keep my interest in the garden. Tons of micro beasts already living in the barley straw bags I've floated in the ponds, fabulous fungi (if anyone can help me with id that'd be great), the Magnolia trunk that always reminds me of an elephant leg and loads of flower buds.

Still freezing today with a little bit of snow. Putting a lot of work into getting water out for the birds and keeping oxygen holes in the ponds for the Frogs. The birds all go for the water before food, so it shows how vital accessible water is at this time of year.

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