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and three-year-old laughing in the wheelbarrow as we bumped down the site. Suddenly my eye was caught by a strange bouncing red thing moving away to the trees. It was an animated strawberry making its way down the path ... in the mouth of a squirrel. Pah

queen wasp making a nest in the shed. Much as I like wasps, and no matter how long I bang on about them being 'the gardener's friends' - helpful, interesting and attractive - I can't have a nest of 10 thousand of them guarding the rakes and spades

, using railway sleepers, three high (about 50 cm), to make a raised water body. Triangular in shape, 2 metres long, with a deep corner dug down a further 50 cm and a shallow corner for marginal plants. Three species of damselfly, two species of dragonfly

'doing the rounds' only at certain times of the year. Almost certainly they have distinct seasonal patterns, but, of course, it's also because they make their patrols each day according to sun-up and -down, and this only coincides with my alarm clock on a

've been about. I usually look for muddy footprints on the slide of the kids' climbing frame, or across the roofs of cars parked in the street.I make sure the rabbit is securely covered up though. There was the time when we were looking after some friends

and climbers, making them appear more hedge-like. Maybe the gatekeeper caterpillars, which feed on grasses like other brown butterflies, prefer a more shaded aspect to feed in.Or it may simply be that gatekeepers spend more of their time perching up high

.Next is what looks like a tiny animated scrubbing brush; it's the larva of a beetle, Ctesias serra. Related to carpet beetles, it scavenges on bits of insects left by spiders that make their messy webs under loose bark on old trees. Its long bristles protect

or so semi-bonsai topiary trees. Many are sculpted into bobble 'cloud' shapes or manicured to form miniature hedges and climbers around the intricate buildings. They really make the place a magical world and produce a series of spectacular vistas