Mechanical spy fly?

What's this monster crawling out of my compost heap today?

It's a Cockchafer or May bug, a kind of beetle that terrifies people who leave their windows open on a warm May evening as it flies noisily around like the mechanical spy fly in 'His Dark Materials'.

But they are quite harmless.  Good at climbing though with those grippy little feet.  And look at those beady eyes and feathery antennae.

This is what they look like when young.

Photo:gardening helpdesk

VLW

Still waiting to hear what South Glos want to do with Vilner Lane Wood, which is waking up. 

Came across this bunch of Ramsons or Wild Garlic there.

Horse chestnut flower

Better pic of glorious horse chestnut flower

and the red variety

Here are the two trees side by side.  The red horse chestnut flowers slightly later than the white.  It is altogether a less robust tree; the leaves are smaller and more curly than the flatter leaves on the white, so you can tell them apart even when not flowering.

Dawn Chorus

International Dawn Chorus Day was on Sunday but you can still catch it if you are up and about between 4.00 am and 5.00 am.

Here is my aide memoire for common bird calls.

To make it legible I had to enlarge it

and 

to avoid it overlapping with 

previous dates

on the web page

I had to move it down the page

So you will have to 

scroll

down

to see it

Lions and butter

First the dandelions and now the buttercups.

The dandelions have now mostly become dandelion clocks.  
If you're not familiar with how they operate, see how many puffs it takes you to clear all the flying seeds off one clock and that will be an accurate time check - somewhere in the world anyway.

A very effective seed distribution mechanisms.

Great in a field or verge but a nightmare in your garden.

Money on the web

After a light shower or a very dewy morning, spider webs show up beautifully.  

I spotted these along the Pithay.

It was only after I viewed this photo below at home that I noticed the owner sitting in the middle.

It's probably a member of the Linyphiidae (linny-fie-iddy) family but that's not much help as there are about 250 species in  this family.

They usually hang underneath the web hiding from birds and waiting for prey to land on the web.

Perhaps this one had just finished a tasty meal.

It looks to have a groove down the middle of its abdomen and a little dimple near the rear.  Any arachnologists out there who can identify this little eight-legger?

Meanwhile I'll just call it a money spider.

What's 'is name?

Wild Arum

Lords and Ladies

Cuckoo Pint

Parson's Pintle

Jack-in-the-pulpit

I just love this plant for some reason.  It's the first woodland plant to show, the red berries give autumn colour to the woodland floor, and most of all the strange flower fascinates me.  It is fertilised by a tiny fly which it traps until coated with pollen and then releases.

But in my garden I'm fighting its attempts to overrun the place.

Ambivalence.