Buttterflies in the garden today: two large white, one gatekeeper or hedge brown, and one that I took to be a speckled wood. The last two both settled on the bamboo at the end of the garden long enough for me to look at them properly. And one enormous, beautiful dragonfly: of course, I don’t know what that was. The picture above is of a painted lady taken on the canal towpath at Woking last month.

Good to see a narrow boat passing through the Woodham flight of locks this morning. The Basingstoke canal was only reopened to navigation earlier this year, after a three-year closure. The boat was moving along quite gingerly, as the water levels were quite low, and a canal authority van was hard on its heels. Passing through the locks has always had to be regulated and monitored for this reason. Yesterday I saw a pretty large fish staying at the surface along a low section of the canal, it may have been struggling for air. Meanwhile new sets of mooring bollards have been installed at the locks along the Woodham flight, so it would seem navigation is being encouraged. They just have to make sure the back-pumping system keeps the water levels up

Finished digging the trench/pond around the bird table at the end of the garden that is meant to help drain the part that I now call the ‘wetlands.’  Whether it will work I don’t know, but it adds a bit of interest, and I shall dress it up a bit in the months to come. Very heavy work, and knocked me up a bit, as I am so unfit these days. Yesterday was a beautiful, spring-like sunny day, after all the snow we had at the beginning of the month, which means the daffodils still aren’t quite out. Just like an old-fashioned winter! The heather below the patio is a fine sight, though

It may still be January, but there are signs of stirring in the garden. Bright sunshine today, daffodils beginning to push through. Although of course they are in fact much later than in recent years, because of our chillier winter this year. That’s all to the good. And plenty of water at the bottom of the garden, in the wetlands! And the day surprises you by staying lighter later

Have returned home after a month away to find the garden looking like a bit like the rainforests we have seen on our travels. This shot above was taken on the first, misty morning of September, the day after we got back. Up in northern Queensland we saw many plants we know as exotic houseplants growing in public flower beds. I got to thinking, how about trying to grow some of those plants outdoors here, in warm spots such as our front garden? It probably won’t be successful, but it will be worth a try

Sometimes it seems the garden is at its best just when you’re about to leave it behind. Tomorrow we fly out to Australia, via Bangkok, and winter in Sydney. Back here everything is lush and green after the recent rain, the pots of fuschias are luxuriant, and even the gladioli are just about to come into flower. By the time we return from what I’m sure will be a great trip summer will be over here. You can’t have everything

A tale of two gardens: my mother was up for the week, and we called in to see Steve. He works six days out of seven, and consequently his garden had become a bit of a wild, untamed tropical jungle, thought he said that was the way he liked it; banana plants and other huge ones with spiked, rather vicious leaves. I told him I was sorry I hadn’t spotted any of the indigenous people that obviously lived and lurked among it all; they must be very shy. ‘Oh yes, the pygmies,’ he said. Later in the week we called in on Grace and Eric; no hostile vegetation, instead an almost overwhelming sense of colour, petunias, begonias, busy lizzies, you name it. A bit too much of everything for my taste, but undeniably spectacular. Both of them much better gardeners than me

The months of June and July are really the best time to be walking along the canal, if the sun and light is right. You get fantastic greens and browns. I treat the canal as an extension of my back garden, and feel a sense of ownership. I started walking along it regularly two years ago, to help repair my back, and wondered why I had not done it years before. Funnily enough, my back is playing up again. The picture of a heron fishing was taken a week ago

Have switched to dispensing sunflower seeds as well from the bird feeder, and am now attracting a better class of visitors. Two greenfinches and a chaffinch on the feeder at the same time; much more colourful! Sparrows have dropped by for the first time, maybe disturbed by the garden makeover going on next door. A day later two nuthatches arrived to sample the sunflowers and peanuts. Things are really looking up!