Tattoodave

What most people forget is that there are pest, diseases and the British, or wherever you are's weather to contend with when gardening. You have to give your plants the best conditions you can, feed and support them all through the growing cycle, if something is going wrong it should be evident from an early stage, though high winds and enormous first time of growing sunflowers is just hard luck, don't be put off by it. Incidentally, if you had supported that sunflower and rubbed away the side shoots you could have come close to the British record, which is only 26 foot, though you'd need it to be grown against a south facing wall.

If you ever get down to London Steve there's a park in Twickenham, Marble Hill House, where there's a nuthatch that will feed from your hand, as well as other birds and marauding squirrels that climb your leg (probably after your nuts too).

As a grub these are ferocious eaters of ants, and incredibly weird looking, they look almost as weird as an adult, but if they eat ants then I like them. They are called Ant lion.

We get a much weirder one in Spain, I'll have to see if I can find a picture of it.

They are strange creatures with weird habits, sounds familiar. Probably not Julian, a wasp might use his stinger but not bite.

Looks like an Ichneumon Wasp to me, Wasp beetles don't have their wings on the outside

Big brave Baxter, brilliant

No problem Lorraine, I'm more used to seeing Two tailed Pasha, Monarch, Swallowtail and Cleopatra, but I do recognise a Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood, you're lucky it's one of the three or four that I know

you can get a daylight lamp if needed, that would work, or put it outside during the summer, if you have one. They are like weeds in the south of Spain.

I'll give you a little clue, don't pot it on when the pot is full of roots, they flower better under stress. Needs lots of sunshine too.

It was gone in a jiffy, as I feed the birds it may come back. I've only seen a handful of adults in the last 8 years

Just found out why I should always have a camera to hand, I'm back in Spain and just had a juvenile turtle dove on the balcony, first youngster I've ever seen, the adults aren't too common either. Sadly, my camera is in the UK.

probably damp rot fungus then, never experienced it before, are you sure it wasn't alien?

Steve, I doubt if it's of plant origin, looks more like animal, maybe a spiders nest or even an alien pod!!

It's definitely a palm frond, this will give you some idea, though it isn't the right species

All's well here, incredibly quiet, yet only heard the cuckoo this morning. I've been thrown out of a few countries, never banished to one, I'll have to try that.

I'm in Lincolnshire Ste, left Spain in February just before the lockdown, going stir crazy but as long as there's alcohol in the house I can enjoy seeing double and talking to myself. Missing the 100 club though. Dave

That's right, I will have, they are Spanish bluebell hybrids, a real menace as they breed with the native ones and they reproduce faster, nice enough in a garden if you have to have them, but should be banished to the Iberian peninsula. Unlike me!!

Didn't know him long enough, and didn't see enough of him, thoroughly nice guy with time for everyone. My condolences to Pat, his family and friends. Dave

surprisingly the cockspur hawthorn has enormous thorns, but this variety has none and a different leaf to the species, the world of plants is quite surreal at times.

Looks like it to me too, a thornless hawthorn if ever I saw one.

It not a tree you bump into on a daily basis, and the leaves are pretty much identical to our native hawthorn. I'm amazed that it's in leaf already, hopefully spring will spring forth soon as I return to England on Tuesday. There aren't many trees that have leaves like a hawthorn, so well spotted.

It's Crataegus crusgalli, the Cockspur Hawthorn, a thornless cultivar as the species is heavily armed.

My favourite bird, the Yaffle.