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.

Self Sown Foxglove

Previously I posted about a daffodil that has appeared and flowered in our garden - at least 5 yrs after I last threw daffy bulbs into the soil (here) and now we've a self-sown Foxglove in flower.

I planted foxgloves over 20yrs ago - but although I love the look of them, I haven't planted foxys since (was being cautious about the digitalis - read too many Agatha Christies in my youth.)  Foxgloves are biennials and over the years there have been large leafed 'weeds' which I've usually pulled out but this year I was lazy / busy and one of the 'weeds' has flowered ... proving itself to be a foxglove!!   Really love those spots.