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After the frantic time of summer holidays, when it's as much as I can do to remember to mow the lawn occasionally or throw a bucket of water on anything that's drooped dangerously, we are edging back to the normal routines of work, school and ... a

fences to prevent the geese from trampling some of the newly planted edges. And what's this hawking over the water surface? An emperor dragonfly, Anax imperator. Things are looking up.Maybe the heron will be a regular visitor. Nearby Dulwich Park has a

, on the edge of meadows, while the meadow browns prefer fluttering across swathes of long grass.Whatever the reason, they're very obvious in the garden this week, because they're mating and they spend many minutes, or even hours, 'in copula'. One pair sat

the densely populated 12eme arrondissement?Something occurs to me. Are the houses of south-east London no longer attractive for nesting in the eaves? What with roof insulation and loft conversions, perhaps the birds are being edged out? Ironically, the five

several damselflies in tandem mating pairs so recolonization is happening, if only slowly.The water level has been going down slowly in the hot weather, only 7 or 8cm, but enough to show the ugly liner at the edges, so I topped it up with a hose

, sheltering in the moist seclusion of long grass, log piles and disreputably untidy corners. We do have a pond, but it's not very big and it's raised: a triangle of old railway sleepers the top edge being a good half metre up from the ground. Originally I