ROSE CHAFER BONANZA

What can you see hidden in this Choisya? As I walked towards the bush there must have been about 20 Rose Chafer beetles, many in flight around the bush and they flew away as I approached, but several stayed. I think I spotted 6 in this photo the last one being perhaps just the head and feelers protruding so not easy to see.

I have seen Rose Chafer beetles in the garden before but never quite so many at once so I am delighted that they seem to be thriving and multiplying year on year.

The first time I found one it was on the compost heap crawling so I didn't even realise it could fly and I assumed it was something like a dung beetle. Wrong.

Another year I saw them in flight - oh what clumsy insects they are and quite noisy as they pass by.

Once I discovered what they were thanks to Dr James Logan posting a photo on his twitter account
I did some research and realised that the grubs I had disposed of when potting on using my compost were probably the Larva. Since I have found many and carefully returned them to a suitable compost area. Clearly this has paid dividends this year.

I even found a mating pair.

They look rather precarious.

Such glorious colours.

 Hidden in this photo I counted 5.

Here is Meg because it was her taking an interest in them on the bush that drew Mike's attention to them and in turn a request for me to leave my household chores and bring my camera into the garden.

Finding so many Rose Chafer beetles this year may be one of the bonuses of having an unkempt garden full of perfumed flowering plants.

I posted a couple of years ago showing Rose Chafer beetles on my roses
 http://joanne-orangecottages.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/june-in-garden.html

A WALK THROUGH THE COW PARSLEY

The Cow Parsley has been as beautiful as ever this year so I decided to take my camera on a walk through the woods.

Down the track, shall I go right no maybe not.

The first track on my left is my favourite.

I don't know what I like the most the Cow Parsley the lovely bark of the trees or the lime green of the leaves.

We had heavy rain yesterday which battered the Cow Parsley down a bit, but I was concerned that I might miss the Cow Parsley so I decided to take photos anyway.

Past the two stumps, the remains of a stand of three lovely trees that is no more.

I hope you are enjoying the view.

Somewhat impenetrable but enticing.

Lovely isn't it?

and more

Out into the field beyond with Hawthorn

And more Cow Parsley

Lovely to look at, but a tick haven so go well booted. Lessons for Guildford Borough on land management needed because the field is meant to be a play area for children not a good mix - ticks and children and there have been several cases of Lyme Disease being contracted in this locality.

Back through the woods

In places the Cow Parsley is nearly shoulder high so like walking through a sea of white.

and back up the track home.

I posted a similar post in 2010 when all three trees were still standing
http://joanne-orangecottages.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/walking-in-woods.html

I was recently filmed walking in these woods for The Big Tick Project - this is work Bristol University are doing collecting ticks with the help of Vets around the UK, so that they can map their locations ( we patients can tell them already that ticks are found throughout the UK in Town Parks and gardens not just in the countryside but it will be good to have that documented and in a published research paper).
The second part of the research is to identify what infections ticks carry that can cause human and animal health problems. That is the most important part of the research and as with other countries that have done similar research projects it is likely to throw up some interesting and important data maybe with a few surprises. Hopefully this will in turn attract much needed research in the field of Tick borne Diseases.
Here is a post on my Looking at Lyme Disease blog featuring Chris Packham, with a few clips of me walking Meg through the woods http://lookingatlyme.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/the-big-tick-project-thank-you-chris.html

ROSE BANKSIA BANKSIA WITH CLEMATIS

Clematis The President with Banksia Banksia Rose growing up the back of the house.

My photos don't do it justice.

A delightful rose but needs a lot of wall and needs copious pruning several times during the summer.

Although it has already been pruned before flowering I can see some long shoots waving around near the top left.

Choisya  looking even more attractive than the last time I posted a photo.

Nelly Moser clematis in a shady corner - this was grown from a cutting which is just as well as the mother plant got disturbed last year and much of it has died leaving just a little, which I hope recovers to it's past glory.

Although it likes some shade and helps to keep the lovely colours being bleached I am going to need to prune the Winter Jasmine severely back in order that it doesn't smother this young clematis.

The colours of The President are captured slightly differently with the camera something to do with the eye filtering out red which the camera picks up.

I am not sure why this and the following photo has such different colours as they were taken within about a minute of each other.

So lovely to see the hosta before the slugs have a field day and the Ginka in the pot has such interesting leaves especially at the start of the season with their distinctive green.

I am not good at staging for photos it is all a bit as you find me - here I had been pruning some of the Banksia Banksia before I decided to take some photos before heavy rain was expected the following day. The small sticks are to deter Meg from sitting on the hosta pot.

A cutting from Banksia Banksia growing up the front of the house - it takes well from cuttings which is no surprise when it grows so vigorously. Sadly we lost our beautiful Wisteria after pruning back hard for decorating jobs although we planted a new one two years back it struggles to get going.

Clematis Elsa Spath again looking rather more red than the eye picks out.

SKY AND CLOUDS - VISION

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I wanted a photo of the sky and couldn't decide which to choose so I have put them on my blog so that I can decide.

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13. Do any of them make you think of Vision?