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Holy shnai-keys that's an awesome beaker! Hope that Skatty feels better.

Your plants are looking awesome, Grey!

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Thank you ironjaws. I didn't feel well enough to take any photos yesterday so here are some today.

Skatty recovered well and, after having no meow for a couple of days, is back to squeaking and hugging up a storm; wasn't able to get any photos of him today because he's outside somewhere (not such a bad thing). I do have some sad news, though... unfortunately Red passed away yesterday; I believe the cause was simply his age, I'd had him for 19 months and he must have been at least 6 - 8 weeks upon purchase, if not older, so he had a really good run. He'd been slowing down greatly lately but showed no concerning signs of illness. He faced a lot of drama courtesy of his not-so-good swimming and increasingly long fins (and spinal deformity) but lived as good of a life as I could give him. I'll miss him, my room doesn't feel the same without him. Mmh.

I've been meaning to introduce you all to the newest member of my sister's household; she visited on Sunday, bringing this little "land shark" with her, so we got the camera out. Oo er.

Hmmm.

Ah hah! Mystery solved. This is Heen, my sister's 11 week old puppy (and my amazing sock and bootie combo, my sister took this photo).

Heen is 11 weeks old and a cross between 3 breeds, 2 of which I can't remember the names of, 1 is a staffy. She's a bundle of energy at the moment and a bit nibbly but otherwise behaves exceptionally well! She already knows how to sit and wait and will happily sit on your feet. She's lovely.

Onto today's photos, I'll start with the wildflowers, which Heen took a keen liking to on Sunday. They've recovered well. I've finally looked into exactly what it is I'm growing, the species are: common knapweed (Centaurea nigra), common poppy (Papaver rhoeas), corn chamomile (Anthemis arvensis), corncockle (Agrostemma githago), cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), corn marigold (Glebionis segetum), hedge bedstraw (Galium album), meadow buttercup (Ranunculus acris), meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria), ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) and red campion (Silene dioica). I think the abundance of sprouts you're seeing are the corncockle.



Misi is being her usual silly self. I thought it'd be nice to take a random photo of her... can you spot her?


Here's one of our two clematis plants, they're doing really well this year and have around 100 flower buds on them.


And our Japanese maple, we've had this tree for years.


We also have a blackbird nest in one of the bushes down the bottom of the garden; it's amazing seeing the parents coming and going, though we've had a couple of incidents with the cats. Thankfully the male blackbird is very alert and his peeping and popping lets us know when the cats are too close so we can intervene (we being me, as I'm home all day anyway). There's a parting in the leaves of the bush and you can see right where the nest is, mama bird is happy to sit on there while you peek in (though I don't bustle the leaves - don't need to!). I caught a glimpse of one of the chicks yesterday - it's huge! Will probably leave the nest soon. Papa blackbird is stunning.


The parents clearly don't mind me and my family being out and about in the garden, a number of times the male has landed very close to us without any form of alarm call and has happily sat and watched us. It's such a gift to see them so close.

Indoors now, my basil has started to set seed. Squee! I've never raised a plant from seed to seed before.


When my sister came over she found the macro setting on mum's camera, so I took some macro photos of the Drosera dielsiana plantlets. They're doing really well. You can see some Utric seedlings there, too.


I dug out my ancient ruler from my young, single-digit days to give you an idea of the size of some of my plants. The ruler measures in cm, not inches. Here are the Drosera capensis seedlings.


And my Mexican Pinguicula.


Macro photo of Pinguicula 'weser', this is Beatrice... I think. Not a very close macro shot, I know, I was curious to see what the photo would be like though.


Here are the Pinguicula lusitanica, this is a macro shot, too. The lighting is much better than the standard photo! They are now 139 days old.


And last but by no means least, here is a photo of some sphagnum moss coming back to life that I mistook for P. vulgaris seedlings; come on, it looks fairly similar to the adult plants at least! But, with that being said, I do believe I have a sprout in the tub somewhere. Somewhere.


It's been a really hectic week but God has brought me and my family through it... so happy to be able to share these bright moments with you all.

Sorry to read about Red, Grey.

Heen is a.dor.a.ble! That you mentioned part staffy makes it all the more obvious, she looks like a complete sweetheart! Your wildflowers are gonna look great when they start blooming!

I can't get over how awesome your pings look in pure perlite, seriously, I think I drool a bit whenever I see them. I'm getting really antsy for my sethos and gigantea to grow more leaves so I can try pullings and planting them in pure perlite. The sphagnum moss is looking good, too!

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Thank you ironjaws! Heen is a jewel, I'm sure she'll flourish under my sister's care. Thinking of moving photo days back to Tuesdays, I wasn't very well yesterday (nor really this morning) so I've been a bit behind with my "schedule". Here are some photos though. Some of them are a bit blurry, but so am I today so it's OK!

The wildflowers are doing really well! They're getting BIG. Other species are breaking out, too.


Last week I shared a couple of photos of a male blackbird; well, today, I have a very blurry and badly angled photo of him and his fledged chicks! I heard them squabbling earlier. So pleased they fledged well!


Moving indoors, we have a Skatty, who is fine now and back to squeaking up a storm.


Alpine strawberry is flowering and fruiting; this variety is known as "white soul", so the fruits will be white with red seeds.



I must have around 100 basil flowers that are producing seed, here are a few.


And the Drosera dielsiana; these guys are growing noticeably every week!



Same goes for the Drosera capensis - they are really getting big now.




I received some silica sand for the Mexican Pinguicula; I won't be repotting these guys again until next year, hopefully, but I may have plans in motion for some new additions... we'll see.


And here are the Pinguicula lusitanica, now 146 days old.


And finally, this is where Red's aquarium used to be. It feels strange not having him there. I'm trying to think of something creative to put there instead... both cats have gotten up there (it's not far off the floor) and enjoyed a new viewing point so far though.


Time for lunch.

Great pictures Grey! The only other plant that can beats Capensis in it's willingness to spread everywhere is basil

Love the pics, and the cats! . Awesome growing!!

Thank you both for your comments! I did some research into the life cycle of a fruit fly and have learned that all the flies my Pinguicula have caught are not actually fruit flies but adult fungus gnats; for some reason I thought fungus gnats weren’t flies of some sort... interesting. They’re breeding again in some of my pots, but not doing the plants any harm so far that I can see, so I guess it’s fine.

Self-sustaining ecosystem – woo!

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I'm going to start with a photo I took yesterday of my first alpine strawberry, the variety is "White Soul". Not knowing when to harvest, I looked to google and had little success, so I thought I'd look at google images to see what a ripe white soul strawberry looked like. The photos varied but the majority looked like this photo.

I have since learned that these strawberries do fatten up, similarly to your regular red ones, so this one was not ripe. It was delicious, but not fully grown or fully ripened. The smell was fantastic! Live and learn. Here's a photo from today of the plant...


Today is somewhat of a tale of a cat... a cat who believed so strongly that my breakfast drink was cat milk and she could have some. I had a breakfast cereal drink for, well, breakfast (as one would be safe to assume) without really considering Misi's feelings. The bottle, you see, looks identical to that of a bottle of cat milk, and when I shook it (as instructed!) Misi came pottering into the kitchen meowing up a storm. I tried to explain to her that it was not cat-fodder but she continued to meow at my feet.

I have never heard so many meows before. I attempted to walk away but she followed me out of the kitchen, through the hallway and into the living room... so I tried to walk back through and she followed me back through. So I darted outside and sat down, hiding the bottle as best I could. Note to self: be careful with bottled cereal drinks, they attract moggies like no tomorrow.

I'd finished my drink, went indoors to grab the camera and headed back outside... uh.

"My milk, please."

"Well?"

"Is the milk a lie?!"

After feeling a tad uneasy at having a stalker-cat I took some photos outside; here are the wildflowers, they're over a foot tall now!


And some begonias my mother bought yesterday, they're lovely!


I went to roam the garden to see what else I could photograph; I saw a tortoiseshell butterfly with his wings spread out on the side of our shed so I tried to approach to get a photo, he flew off. I went to check out the nearby lavender to see if any butterflies were on there, but no. I turned around.

"Well?"

With a brief stare and a nonchalant sniff of the lavender, Misi was preoccupied enough for me to escape and go inside to get some photos of the plants. Here are the Drosera capensis, which are continuing to grow and catch fungus gnats.


The Pinguicula lusitanica; they are 153 days old. Admittedly, numbers are dwindling and I don't know why. Nothing has changed except the weather, and they didn't seem to have problems when we had a heatwave earlier in the year. I must be missing something.


Pinguicula 'Tina' looking lovely; in the full-size photo you can see all the veining in the leaves.


And the Pinguicula 'Weser', equally lovely.


With the plants photographied (photographed) I went to see Skatty, who was (and is) being his usual cute, I'm-going-to-knead-the-crap-out-of-everything self. I fussed him with inevitable consequences.





Thrilled by my conquest, I went out into the hallway so I could start uploading photos and make this topic. There before me...

"Well?" in her I'm-not-going-to-look-at-you-but-my-angry-stare-is-aimed-at-you way.

"Do not make eye contact. Do not make eye contact. Look cute and forlorn. Do not make eye contact."

I tickled her head and went downstairs to start uploading; I peered up the stairs and could just see a tail hanging there and...


Colour me unnerved. I think I'm going to have to buy a bottle of cat milk in the near future...

We've been having heatwaves over here and that, combined with a variety of other circumstances, has led to some major flare ups in my health problems so am not likely going to upload photos for a few days. I'll give you a brief update on the P. lusitanica though... the heat seems to have decimated them, I've not known where else to put them. Err. Yeah. Brain just switched off LOL. It's really unfortunate, I'm disappointed, but equally I've not grown a warm temp Ping from seed before so I think I'll stick to Mexican Pings, who are loving this weather.

Please take care and rest in a cooling place, drink more fluids too. Health is priority!

Take care, Grey, I agree with tish, health is number one.

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Thank you both, I really appreciate it. I've been taking the odd photo here or there over the last couple of weeks, and was able to get some updates for you all today so here they are.

On the 15th July, I randomly acquired Misi and dumped her on my lap, expecting her to run as I was at the computer desk... you know those random "must hug" moments that you get with cats? No? Okay, I'm just crazy then - but anyway, she settled with her head rested on the desk, much to my amusement, so my mother took a photo. You can just read this animal's thoughts by her expression, can't you?


Moving forward to the 25th, or there abouts (it would seem the date these photos say they were taken is off a little), Misi was chilling out in the conservatory. We were still in the midst of a heatwave (it's starting to cool off a little now, praise God) and, bless them, the cats barely knew what to do with themselves.


Now, we have some delightful visitors to our garden - hedgehogs! It all started with one pretty large beast showing up and devouring cat biscuits left our for out man cat, Skatty, as he's now a night owl... the hedgehog would waltz to our back door, much to our appreciation and utter delight, and stand there looking beautiful until we moved too close and he'd plod off to his hiding spot. One evening, I was pottering about outside and heard the undeniable sound of hedgehog munching cat biscuit, so I turned around and saw a hedgehog drinking from the water bowl... then I heard the cat biscuits... then I realized we have two! "Big one" and "little one". Photos, obviously, ensued.

Two nights later (I think it was two), my mother informed me that we had three hedgehogs eating from the food bowl all at the same time. It seems we've opened a hedgehog cafe of some description, I was able to get a photo.

The interesting thing is that the larger hedgehog in the first photo was not present, so technically we have at least four that frequent our garden, although I haven't seen the largest hedgehog for a couple of nights. It's very exciting, and encouraging, because hedgehogs are endangered in the UK, so to have a small congregation like this in our garden is a real treat. And if anyone is concerned, I just want to let you know that I did some research into it and the cat biscuits we put out are safe for the hogs. They contain no form of dairy products or things that could upset their digestive systems.

Onto the 26th we have Skatty... who wants to SMASH!!!!!

Being the hug-on-legs that he is, he nuzzled the mossy underside of one of our garden benches and developed hulk syndrome.

He looked rather perplexed on and off that day as whenever he entered a room we couldn't help laughing. Today, he is much less green.


And Misi is, well, being Misi.


Outside, the wildflowers are doing really well! A couple of days ago the first corncockle flower bloomed, I took some photos today for you. They're lovely!



I had a lovely close encounter with a Gatekeeper butterfly; he didn't want to open his wings fully for me, but that's OK.



Inside, we have the alpine strawberry plant, which is doing fairly well. It's clearly benefited from the sun we've had.



One of the Phalaenopsis still has a flower on it from earlier in the year, do you remember this?

And another phal seems to be doing OK; I've had a job keeping these guys watered, my schedule has completely disappeared but the plants aren't looking too bad for it, thankfully.


The basil plant is continuing to set seed, I've got a pile of pods to dismantle. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do with this.


The Drosera capensis has absolutely exploded... they're getting big!



The two Drosera dielsiana are also enjoying the sun. The largest must be 2.5cm across now, coming up to 3.


Unfortunately the P. lusitanica all died off; I think the heat was a bit much for them, I kept them at the right moisture level and can't think of anything else that may have gone wrong. The utrics died, too, despite my best efforts. These things happen, though I am disappointed... I'm grateful that the other plants are doing as well as they seem to be, so I'll stay focused on them.

I'm happy you're better, Grey!

WOW, those strawberries are looking great! And your sundews... fugedabadit (that's, " forget about it" in mob speak).

Those flowers are really taking off, huh?

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I'm sorry it's been a little while again since I last posted, things with my health were still up and down but I feel a little more stable now so hopefully will get back into a good routine. Here are some photos of the plants and stuff.

I took this on 8th August 2014 (I think, the camera's settings are off... probably the 8th lol); a red admiral butterfly flew into our conservatory and was too energetic for us to get any decent photos. This one isn't too bad, all things considered. This little (big!) beauty perched on my hand for a while once I caught him to let him go, wings shut of course. Stunning!


Yesterday I was blessed with the strength to make the first cake I've baked in a looooong time; I watched as it rose to nearly triple its original size and then...

I have never had that happen to a cake before. I've had it spew batter over the sides and through the bottom of the pan but not quite like this. It seems that the cake rose, a hole appeared, and batter started pouring out. It had a baby! I could not get over it, so funny! Anyone for crater cake?

I've since covered it in frosting and am hoping to decorate it with raspberries for a games night with some church friends tonight. Bahaha.

The corncockle is taking over the wildflower border; we've had a ton of rain lately which I imagine should be helping the other wildflowers break through.



Alpine strawberry plant seems to be doing OK, some of the young fruits are dying off. May need fertilizing.


My utricularia is making a comeback! Woohoo!


The Drosera dielsiana seems to be reaching maturity, getting to a good size. I'm intrigued by how the only two that survived the fungus gnat larvae onslaught were two that germinated right by the edge of the pot.


The Mexican Pinguicula are still looking lovely, I'm excited to see how they do over winter in the perlite.

P. 'weser' dividing...


That's it for now.

I'm happy that you're feeling better, Grey! Also, HA! Crater cake!? That is genius!

I'm really diggin' your pings in the perlite. My P. Sethos is doing great and when it divides I'm so trying out pure perlite.