Don't look behind you............

The gourds have escaped the confines of the greenhouse. Having filled up one half of the greenhouse completely they are making a bid for freedom as the pictures below show.

In the greenhouse the yellow hibiscus is going from strength to strength

The gourds are not the only plants which expanding their range. One of the runners from the pumpkin plants has grown through the tree mallow and now is about to cross the path.

Finally, remember the bees which had moved into the bamboo on the insect house? They have now finished there. They have laid their eggs in the tubes and sealed them with pollen mixture for the newly hatched larva to feed on. You can see the sealed ends- they are greeny-yellow in the right hand picture.

       The left hand picture shows the bamboo just as the bees moved in.  The bees have been very busy since then. We have not yet  had time to establish the species of the bee but we have good field notes and some pictures so hopefully it will not be too long before we can identify them. They may well be Red Mason Bees-  a friendly species which do a lot of good work in gardens and orchards

Finally this afternoon there were several Southern Aeshna (Hawker) dragonflies in the school garden.  They were feeding around the pond and also under the branches of the sycamore trees - where they often perch for a while and rest up. They were too quick to photograph!