Dorset 1: Welcome to Kingcombe

A bit of a wet start to our stay in Dorset but the snails are happy. Great to walk in the flower-filled meadows and find orchids in large numbers.

Toft Parish Walk

On Sunday, our village in Cambridgeshire did its Annual 'May' Parish walk of the northern/western boundaries of the village, this year delayed to coincide with the Jubilee weekend.  It is a walk that I have done once or often more times in a week for the last 53 years since I moved to Toft and it is always a delight with the great views from the higher viewpoints. Unfortunately the weather was not kind but it didn't put off the walkers on their route up to and along Hardwick Wood (though the boots had to be removed before the lunchtime soup!!). The Historical Society produced notices showing the old names for the fields - recorded here in situ for comparison with older and, hopefully, future views of the areas.

Garden Project 12

Everything in the garden has grown very tall this year with introduced species growing happily with whatever wildflowers have spring up. The Ox-eye daisies are particularly favourites with insects - every flowerhead has its quota of flies,beetles etc. The taill purple Linaria and the foxgloves, especially the small-flowered yellow ones. attract bees while all the varieties of poppies are full of hoverflies. The Yellow Rattle is tall and setting seed now so hopefully next year the grass will be sparser and more wild flower species can get a hold in the meadow.

New Visitors to the Garden

Two new species recorded in the garden this week - the Currant Clearwing (around 1.5 cm long) and a Hairy Yellow-Faced Bee. Lots of other attractive insects around at the moment