Slug-hunting

I have been out three times tonight, and caught fresh slugs every time -- the biggest was the length of my little finger (and I think I now know what happened to the missing marigold seedling in that pot...) I just don't know where they have been hiding all this time, and where the constant supply is coming from; my nightly raids should have been having *some* impact by now in what is basically a closed ecosystem.

The one good thing is that slug-hunting causes me to be out after dark with my nose down at knee-level, which is the only circumstance in which it appears to be possible to detect scent from my night-flowering phlox ( Read more... )

( poached egg plants and poppies )

Poached-egg flowers

The poached-egg plant (Limnanthes douglasii) has opened its first bud, as promised.
And the calendula is now three times the size of the plant that was originally larger, and has multiple flowers and a possible seedhead (in April!) on it -- so much for the supposed ill-effects of clear yoghurt pots! (Yes, I did replant it a few days ago into a larger plastic flower-pot, but that was because it had clearly outgrown the original tub and was drying out rapidly in the hot sun due to its sheer mass of foliage...)

Cupid and my Campaspe

Struggling with Martin Dalby's song "Cupid and my Campaspe" (so obscure that there doesn't appear to be a recording anywhere on the Internet, even on Spotify, which is generally better for non-pop music). The A-level vocal performance syllabus rates it at 'Grade 9', which is interesting as I always thought the system topped out at Grade 8 :-O

Now I know how Christine must have felt when presented with the apparently random notes of "Don Juan"...