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I can see strange things from the patio decking today: five grey herons, a swathe of spotted redshanks, curlews by the dozen, three little egrets (with their yellow rubber-glove feed), four or five cattle egrets, a couple of grebe-like things way

counted about 15, the same number we get every year, give or take. They're late this year; in 2007 it was May 2nd.Then it was newts, three of them paddling about at the bottom of the pond. They were easily visible against the new butyl liner I had to put

; by the time she had four paws on the patio, the squirrel would be off up the fence and gone. She’d tried many times before, all to no avail.But her swishing tail made me look up at what was so agitating her. At first I could not quite make out what was going

few days, the fox has been back each morning to sniff around the patio, today we've had wood pigeon, jay, greater-spotted woodpeckers and more squirrels than I can shake a broom at. A few days ago there was still a bumblebee flying (not sure what

I'm on my way through the old city of Strasbourg, and gardens here are vanishingly small. The occasional secret courtyard houses a giant ginkgo or has its walls swathed in lobelia and Virginia creeper. The breakfast patio at the Hotel du Dragon has

these wonderful creatures in my back garden. South London is now about the only place in the UK where you can regularly see these awesome monsters. My supposition is that when the housing boom spread across the area 100 to 150 years ago, it was one of the most

themselves are very tough. I was astonished to find the specimen pictured above in an East Dulwich garden. It was lying on the patio waving its legs in the air. At first sight I thought it was something new, a pale-bodied weevil, rather than the usual dark

, 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

, the drain is perfect for it. It receives a tiny dribble of rain run-off from only a very small part of the roof, and gets plenty of organic material from the soil particles and spilled food flushed down when we occasionally hose off the patio. In effect, we

of the patio plants. A mouse nibbles seed heads in one of the borders. There is a Mediterranean bouquet garnis smell in the hot air. Lots of garden thyme in tonight's risotto.Thursday 12th A nuthatch visits the breakfast patio, but I cannot make out what