the story of Casa Azul

The pond has been abandoned a little but despite a somewhat murky appearance seems to be doing well. We had made it to attract the frogs and this has yet to happen but as there seems to be so few slugs that’s no big deal. What has happened though is that it has become a magnet for the birds who like nothing more than a big splashy bath to start the day. There can be up to five different kinds battling for a place on ‘the beach’ including tits, (blue and great), goldfinches, robins, serins, blackbirds, greenfinches, sparrows and black redstarts plus their scruffy young. Pictures to follow. My favourite at the moment is the linnet although not a common sight. A hoopoe flew by the other day, and there are jays too.

There are quite a few plants growing well and the lily has produced its second yellow flower – very pretty:

But nowhere near as pretty as the red dragonflies:

They look bizarre close up with a giant bobbing head and filigree wings, kind of fascinating but creepy at the same time!

NB Have a butchers on the video page as there’s a new one with the (pretty much) finished house.