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feared. The really sharp cold of last week had lifted slightly and the soil was not frozen solid. In fact it was nearly as friable as normal. We just don't get hard winters in London any more. As we lowered the small cardboard box, which previously held

she rested in the warm day, then off she buzzed. Lovely.This, for me then, is the end of winter.

elbows whenever I go past. It's a tough old brute. So I have no worries at all that it is being attacked by a battalion of major garden pests.It's been very mild this winter so it's no surprise that things are already active. The new leaf shoots

only a minimal distance) is probably only relevant to those 88% with larger gardens outside large urban centres, but the other (delay cutting until late winter) is already finding favour in my garden. Although we did a bit of trimming earlier

cycle, surviving the winter in the silk-cocooned egg stage, Tegenaria females can live for several years, a result of living in those sheltered voids and avoiding the extremes of wet and cold suffered by outdoor species.I once very cavalierly picked up

an overwintering chrysalis. This butterfly is unique among our British species in that it hibernates in both caterpillar and chrysalis stage. Those that spent winter as a caterpillar will have a bit of catching up to do and should start emerging in May.On Sunday

it does not flit from flower to flower like a butterfly. But it flies readily if disturbed from its not-very-camouflaged position on a leaf, wall, fence, window, car, no-parking sign, bollard or brightly coloured plastic bin full of winter salt/grit mix

…and October…and November, and before I knew it we had a winter without any apparent autumn. All those end of summer flies and beetles I expected never showed up. And no fungi either. It was all very disappointing.Postscript. It's just rained, all I needed

species, I did not get close enough), a cloud of winter gnats (Trichocera species) were dancing over the middle of the lawn, and several flies were dying like flies around the pond.I really value my garden wildlife, but I have to admit that it is not all

high up on the trunk of an old tree at the edge of the clearing. It’s a nuthatch. From this distance its grey-blue plumage makes it look elegant and sleek, rather than the ‘plump’ suggested by all the birding guides. Maybe it’s just had a tough winter