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As someone who only cleans his car when it gets particularly dirty, I only strim the grass in my garden occasionally, only cut my hair about twice a year, and generally much prefer low maintenance although my GTI gets serviced etc every 10k miles. Consequently, my garden may be described as rustic and a haven for wildlife. I live near a small river with many trees. I used to lug around a professional camera kit - Nikon and then Canon - but nowadays a compact digital Fuji Finepix EXR does the job. Obviously it has a number of limitations and I accept the compromise.
So, technically the following pics won't be the most pin-sharp or professional quality but I think the images are worth sharing.
^ Red Admiral. Apparently quite rare but I've always had one or two in my garden. I have a whole bunch of nettles growing and they like them. This shot was taken literally at arm's length as the beauty was in a tree. That's a bench seat in soft focus below.
^ Two Giant Pond Snails about to enjoy coitus for a couple of hours. Yes, that white 'tongue' is actually a penis. A Magpie has since smashed up one of these two - I saw it happen.
^ The resulting snail eggs under a dying lily leaf.
^ Dying water lily leaves in the small pond I built. Nature's paintings.
^ Unidentified larvae - Probably Mosquito or Gnat.
^ Hover Fly (Helophilus pendulus) on water lily leaf. A regular visitor who is quite tame and allows me to get close.
^ The birth of a Sunflower. Again a very low maintenance plant.
^ Another Sunflower head starting.
^ Mayfly (Drake Mackerel) - Elegance!
^ A young Hedgehog on a mission. I came across him one morning - He didn't hang around!
^ Another type of Hoverfly (Eupeodes luniger), a migrant species from Europe, on an unknown-to-me plant. The only things I've planted have been Sunflowers and a couple of trees.
More pics to follow in due course. Hoping you enjoy
