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know they have to eat, but one particular sparrowhawk has taken to using our garden it as its own five-star restaurant. Just about every day I witness it take at least two of my beloved sparrows, or the blue tits or just about any of the smaller

. Previous clearings of the weed have led to some interesting discoveries.The first signs of dragonfly colonization were revealed in the several large larvae dredged up at once. I had seen the common blue damselfly, Enallagma cyanthigerum, often enough

to time. There's a flash of yellow around April when a brimstone flitters quickly by. Then I'll see the occasional holly blue or orange tip, plus some cabbage white butterflies. Even they've been visiting less frequently.The wet weather must have played

are pretty resilient to attacks from snails, so we tolerate them, to a point. When it comes to them defoliating my newly planted courgettes, or shredding the irises, I admit we resort to the little blue pellets.This extermination aside, I think snails can

, about 45cm tall, with tiny flowers on long stems as delicate as the legs of a newborn giraffe. It goes beautifully with grasses.Unsurprisingly, pinks don't come in blue, orange or yellow - although it's possible to dye the flowers by leaving a cut stalk

for another list...My favourite late-flowering perennial plants, in no particular order:Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii 'Goldsturm' - about 75cm high. Flowers until at least mid-October.Agastache 'Blue Fortune' - not one one for very cold parts

of electric blue, lime green and scarlet it's more likely to give the poor beast migraines.Anyway, there was this toad. We don't see them often, but they are definitely about and they usually turn up, like this one, when I'm doing a bit of autumn tidying