Cats, caterpillars and cranesbills

Been stuck at home over the last few days, thanks to the combination of financial embarrassment and freaky weather. Spent Sunday evening pottering about in the garden, yanking the odd weed and trying to enjoy the last of the settled weather. It smells lovely out there on summer evenings. This is thanks to my half-dozen or so lavender plants of various sizes and varieties, not to mention the roses in a neighbouring garden. Adding to the heady scent, is this jasmine belonging to the neighbours on the opposite side, which has scrambled over our wall.





This little guy loves scrambling through it, and has recently taken to wearing its blossoms as feline fashion accessories. Maybe he wants to be the Pete Burns of the cat world, all fur-coated, with flowers in his hair. Just so long as he doesn't take up chain-smoking as well - he'll be sent to a cat sanctuary.



I think someone's spotted something a little interesting.



Yep, she's definitely intrigued by something. What could it be?



Aha - so that's what the intrigue is all about, cinnabar moth caterpillars.





Good lord! How can something so small produce such whopping turds [those black blobs on the leaves]? Don't say you never learn anything new from this blog. You now know what cinnabar moth caterpillar turds look like. Aren't you glad?



Luckily, they only seem to want to eat weeds, and are leaving the garden plants alone. Being a soft sod, I've left a few groundsels and such like amongst the gravel, so they have something to live on. That's one good excuse for a scruffy garden, I guess, helping nature. Woe betide the stripey buggers if they move on to these hardy geraniums, or cranesbills as they're also known.



I had one of the best laughs I've had in ages when I uploaded these pics. I spotted Leo on the high wall above the garden, and as it was getting quite dark by then, I decided to test the camera's night-time capabilities. However, I captured an image of a fiend from hell, which is actually quite a good description of Leo at the best of times.



Hope to have some new Gower/Swansea pics by the weekend, if the weather improves. Otherwise - I'm afraid it'll be next week. Later ....