Acanthus spinosis

…or ‘bear’s claw’ flowers. We’ve had two of these plants for about three years now, maybe four, but this is the first time that the one in the foreground has flowered - and it has three spikes! The tall one at the back flowered last year too, but just had this one spike, well over 1m tall.

Somewhere in there is a little metal birdbath with two bluetits on it (also metal); no real birds have ventured onto it just yet! I think that the metal ones probably look like scary robot birds. They even frighten me a bit…