Garden friend and foes

Another busy day out in the Garden, 200 onion sets have been planted out, The apple tree stump has finally been lifted, the hedge has been cut and the flower bed has been tidied up a little removing all the old brown iris leaves to make way for this years growth. It was when I was tidying up the flower bed that I made the following discoveries.

This Garden friend, the 7 spotted ladybird, is a very welcome inhabitant of our garden.

But hiding in amongst the same leaves were these not so welcome,

the colours are so varied , it's such a shame that they cause such devastation in the garden.

Then more were found hiding inside an old chimney pot.

 I don't like the idea of killing them and I know that if I just toss them across the track into the common most of them would be back in the garden by tomorrow, so I put them into a bucket and carried them up the lane.

I then emptied them out onto the verge half a mile away from my home and no where near anybody elses property either, hopefully most will be found by the local thrushes and badgers.

 But some will survive I am sure.

On my way back home I stopped on a few occasions to pick up some litter and to photograph these lesser celandine  (Ranunculus ficaria)

And to finish the day off perfectly we watched a March hare running around on the common which lifted a Meadow pipit.