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The woodpigeons are back. Not that they had gone away, just that I’ve noticed them a lot over the last week. I love the way they strut their plump bodies about on the lawn, peering intently into the wet grass as if looking for something they lost

At 11 o'clock in the morning, the bowl of Bob-the-Builder pasta shapes was either a late second breakfast, or an early first lunch - whatever, it was interrupted by the announcement from nearly-three-year-old: "Look, there's a magpie". Sure enough

Maybe the frog knew it was going to rain. Maybe the persistent dry heat had finally driven it from its slowly desiccating shelter in a desperate attempt to find moisture elsewhere. Maybe I'd disturbed it from the long grass as I pegged out

salvage for the crumble.We don't have the most regimented of gardens, in fact it's a bit wild sometimes. But wildlife is, by definition, wild. As I said in the magazine, it has no time for straight lines, clipped edges, smart displays, or level lawns. We

, and certainly there have been some moth-eaten examples limping through South London streets. But now I wonder whether all the recent garden make-overs in my area have seen them off.When we moved here 10 years ago, a pleasing number of neighbouring gardens

through the windows of our log cabin (modern not rustic, and complete with TV, 2 bathrooms and air conditioning) and announced "Daddy, there's a pony on the lawn".The pony turned out to be a large elk, one of a herd of about ten females and young that had

My lawn is bone dry. I keep putting off watering it because it's autumn for goodness sake and it should rain soon. It's looking a bit brown, but I know it will recover fine with the first precipitation. The clouds, however, tenaciously hang

, but the land tips steeply down to the sea presenting the perfect soil-warming angle to the sun.I think we are the first residents of the bungalow this year and the garden has been recently 'tidied' i.e. savagely cut, mown, and cleared. The pampas grass tussock

they are navel-high grass doing fierce battle with brambles. And I'm very thankful for them.I'm really pleased at the wildlife I see every day in my own back garden. There is always something going on out there, and new things are constantly turning up. The last