Fruit Flies and Raspberries

 You have just picked a juicy red ripe raspberry and are about to pop it into your mouth when you notice a small white wriggling grub (Photo 1). You suddenly lose your appetite! In all probability, this is the larva of the fruit fly, Drosophila susukii; more commonly referred to as the Spotted...

The Cabbage White Butterfly

For the gardener, the large (Pieris brassicae) and small white (Pieris rapae) butterflies can be a real pest as they lay their eggs on your prize brassica plants (kale, cabbage, broccoli, etc). Hence their common name: Cabbage White Butterflies. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars can demolish a plant in mere days. Undoubtedly, the large white is the more destructive of the two.In this short video...

Garden Bird Action #2

 They're back and breeding again. Do wood pigeons think of anything else? A third nest (strictly speaking a badly-constructed twiggy platform) has appeared in the wisteria arch. One last year and two, so far, this year. Wisteria seems to be a popular nest location for wood pigeons even after I...

View from the Rear Window - May 2025

 Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much - Oscar WildeWe enjoyed warm, sunny & dry weather in May 2025. There were no late frosts so a perfect month for planting out the vegetable plants albeit with some targeted irrigation during the two dry periods. This month's garden photo...

Royal Welsh Show 2025

 We visited the Royal Welsh Show again this year thanks to a couple of free tickets courtesy of our former blacksmith lodger, Alex, who was stewarding the Ornamental Ironwork Show and Blacksmith competitions. We also visited the show in 2023 and 2024.Photo 1: Prize Winning Dahlias, Royal Welsh...