Hello everyone.
It's Sunday afternoon, and another week has sped by. We
have had some lovely days of hot sunshine and enjoyed meals and coffee in the
garden. On one of those occasions, we spotted an amazing dragonfly resting on
the top of a garden cane near where we were sitting. It kept flitting away and
then returning, so that we could take plenty of photos.
This dragonfly is a female Broad-bodied Chaser Dragonfly. The males have a blue body. They are common to England and Wales and parts of Scotland, but this was my first close up encounter. It is possible that it had been using our pond as its habitat, so I shall look out for more dragonflies next year.
While on the subject of dragons, D found this sweet
plushy dragon sewing pattern and, after falling in love with it, it somehow
landed in a shopping basket. If we have time over the Summer, D and I will try
to make him/her up. That should be a fun activity for us both.
Some of you may recall that I was attempting to grow better carrots this year after the previous alien-shaped ones of last year. These are the first new carrots. They are bigger and not so twisted, but not like the ones shown on the seed packet. Still, I'm sure they will taste fine with our meal tonight, along with the first harvest of new potatoes.
Hoping the weather is kind to you all this next week.
Best wishes to you all
B x
Wonderful photos of dragonfly, they would love your pond. The carrots split when they are growing if they encounter a lump, I always sieve my soil before sowing seeds. Marlene, Poppypatchwork
ReplyDeleteThank you for the tip about the carrots, Marlene. I also think the soil might have been a bit too rich. I will try again next year. These ones were still deliciously sweet.
DeleteThe dragon is gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteBroad-bodied chasers are great posers - I haven't seen any in our garden this year. Everything seems to be later.
I do like your carrots - very original.
I hadn't seen one of these dragonflies before. It stayed around posing for us for quite some time.
DeleteThe carrots tasted wonderful when we ate them last night. I shall be picking some more later. At least they have done better than last year :-)
Those are still some funky looking carrots. I tried potatoes long ago, but had no luck. Congrats to you. GREAT pictures of the dragonfly!!! Have fun with the sewing project, it's cute.
ReplyDeleteThey are still rather strange shapes aren't they but they tasted great. Potatoes have been much better and tasted equally good. I was really pleased with the dragonfly photo too. D and I will let you know when the dragon project gets done. Might not be for a while :-)
DeleteDragon flies are so delicate aren't they. I love to see the bright blue ones on a river.
ReplyDeleteI took photos of a large blue variety a few years ago. It was so beautiful and much larger than I expected .
DeleteHaving a pond has meant that we see more of these lovely delicate creatures. Such a joy to watch them.
Great shot of the dragon fly and I LOVE the veggies. Dino is a cutie, too. Cheers, Ivy.
ReplyDeleteHello Ivy. The dragonfly was a surprise but very welcome visitor. Glad you liked the veggies. They are rather fun with their 'individual' shapes. Dino might be a while in the making but we will hold the name as a possible contender when he is made.
DeleteThe close-up photographs of the dragonfly are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI like the look of the plushy dragon.
Enjoy your home grown carrots and potatoes, I'm sure they will taste great :)
Taking the opportunity to wish you a happy new month of July.
All the best Jan
The carrots and potatoes were delicious, thank you. Plushy dragon is now on the 'projects to do' list. It is a very long list :-) Glad you liked the dragonfly. She was beautiful.
DeleteYou captured the dragon fly beautifully! Glad you are enjoying some nice, summer weather. I attempted to grow carrots a few years ago and they did't turn out very well - they were so tiny! Yours look rather nice, though.
ReplyDeleteThank you Julia. The weather has turned cooler again here but I'm sure the sun will be back very soon. The carrots are much bigger than I have grown before but still a bit curly wurly. They tasted great though. I shall pick some more later today. Wishing you a happy July 4th.
DeleteOur carrots look like yours I transplanted them into pots that obviously weren't deep enough so they have curly bottoms but taste amazing.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about the taste, Chris. They are delicious. I shall try again next year with less rich compost/soil and see if they grow straighter :-)
DeleteWonderful to see the dragonfly. There seem so few of them around this year, butterflies too. We saw a dragonfly emerge from our pond last week it was great to see it fly off into the garden. Your garden vegetables look good, carrots especially taste so different straight from the garden. Have a good week:)
ReplyDeleteSeeing a dragonfly emerge from your pond is a wonderful part of nature to witness. It was a treat to be able to take photos of the Chaser dragonfly too. It seemed to enjoy being the centre of attention for a while before flying off. I agree that homegrown carrots taste so much better straight from the garden. We tried a couple of onions tonight in our meal. They were strong but delicious
DeleteGreat photos of the dragonfly, they're funny looking things, aren't they, quite prehistoric looking. The dragon looks like a fun project for you and D to enjoy together. Oh carrots, I think you have to have the perfect soil for them to grow long and straight, they only need to hit a stone to send them off in all directions, haha. They still taste good though no matter what they look like.
ReplyDeleteI'm still searching for the perfect carrot soil. Another year and maybe less wonky carrots. And yes, they were still very tasty. D really fell in love with the dragon pattern so I know it will be a fun project for her to work on . The real 'dragon' fly was pretty cool to watch while we drank our afternoon tea.
DeleteSo nice to be Able to eat outside! The weather here has been way tooo hot!! I've only seen dragonflies in flight- so interesting. I used to have.a large vegetable garden and would be so excited with everything I picked. Enjoy your produce.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting this small corner,Judee. There is something very rewarding about growing your own produce and nothing can beat the taste. I'm not sure I could manage a large vegetable garden though :-)
DeleteYour potatoes are already ripe... that's so nice.
ReplyDeleteI bought the first new potatoes on the market, but home-grown ones are much better... and your carrots are certainly very tasty - they just are
Dwarf carrots, they're really fun to watch.
I wish you a wonderful July.
Hug from Viola
p.s. The dragonflies are great, it's so nice that you were able to take such wonderful photos. Glad to see.
We had potatoes and carrots again for our evening meal. Delicious!
DeleteI hope we see more dragonflies in the garden. They are beautiful to watch and photograph.
Beautiful photographs of the dragonflies. Your potatoes look good. I shall be harvesting some myself, very soon. I'm looking forward to eating them freshly cooked, with a little bit of butter. Xx
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jules. Photographing the dragonfly was an unexpected treat. I don't see them often. Enjoy your potatoes when you harvest them. They will be delicious served from garden to plate. What's not to love about that.
DeleteLoving the shape of the carrots!! And I wish we had more dragonflies around here!
ReplyDeletehugs
Donna
I think the carrots are great too. They tasted delicious.
DeleteThe dragonfly was the first I have seen this year. I'm hoping there will be more to see over the summer.
Have a good week x