blue

It was a lousy summer, the wettest on record. The only colour to describe it was blue...

cornflower

agapanthus

hydrangea

sedum

These are in bloom at the moment, a plant I used to not like at all, but it's tough, easy to grow and has great late summer colour.

newts

While working today on some euonymus liners I came across this little chap. As far as I can tell it's a newt. I seem to come across them in the same damp patch in the glasshouse each year at this time. This time I had my camera...

I didn't see it until I was clearing away weeds

Unlike a frog, it didn't seem bothered about escaping.

It looks almost snake-like (apart from the legs)

It looks ready to sprint away, but no.

Shortly after in the same batch of plants, was found this much larger one.

This second one was obviously more mature and much darker in colour.

dragonfly

Last week we had some sunshine and I saw a few of these. Ran to get the camera and this obliging fella allowed me take some snaps;

When I disturbed it, it just kept coming back to the same place.

Even though the pics are darkish, there was some good sunshine.

I've seen a larger bright blue one go by a few times, but it's much more elusive.

yamadori?

I came across these pines (quite a few) and birches (thousands) recently in an area of cut-away bog and thought about the possibility of collecting a few and trying to transform them into some bonsai. I'd be confident that the birch will survive fairly easily, a bit less so with the pines. The other important thing is whether their shape will allow for a bonsai to be developed. Luckily I have a fair while before I can actually dig up anything, and there's a few hundred acres of ground like this to be explored. So a lot of internet homework to be done...

brich, fairly thick base

small pine

a bit tall, but maybe

nice branching I think

small and bushy