Red Damsels

Another gorgeous day here and we had a couple of guys in to do some work in the garden. We (Marian particularly) have been working to remove three New Zealand flax plants that have grown huge and taken over our front garden. The gardeners had brought a variety of explosives but when coming to lay the charges they thought that our house (and the others in the road) might be a little close so resorted to digging them out instead. They did a great job and had them out in less time than had been anticipated.

Just a word of advice to anyone thinking a NZ flax plant might be a good architectural plant to add a bit of structure to your garden, do restrict yourself to one, unless you have half an acre!

In the back garden there's been a certain amount of activity around the 'new pond'. We noticed a newt in there the other day and today it's been damselflies. There were a pair flying in tandem and another who wanted in on the action. This meant them doing a lot of moving around so I had a job on my hands to keep up and get a focus on any of them. My blip is the one I like best because I got them resting on a leaf that gave me a clear background.

The poppies are doing well, I think we have about ten out now and I might blip them again when it looks spectacular.