Things from the garden

Well the self-sown fox-glove I blogged about back in September was amazing but now there is another!  Rather stunted but a lovely mauve colour

A close up of those lovely spotty throats.

And this chap was in the back garden about a month ago - I've tried to research what sort of praying mantis he is and just ended up very confused.  About the only thing I can say is that he probably is a He because in many species of mantid the ladies are green and the gents are tan brown.

 He was quite large at about 6cms (over 2") and appeared to be dancing to the rockabilly music our neighbours were playing!

Nice white markings down his back.