Dragonfly stuck

External skin of the dragonfly nymph stage

To complete today’s nature studies an old video from a previous garden of a dragonfly stuck in the skin from its nymph stage.

P is for Pruning

Who does not love hacking away at some old trees? I know I do and my trusty pruning saw has been well used lately.

When we moved we inherited some gnarled aged fruit trees which we have gradually been cutting back into something, hopefully, resembling a healthier state. Tree 1

The general rule is that one should be able to throw one’s hat through the middle of the tree – the idea being that it is open to let light in and air circulate to enhance the fruit’s growth. We are getting there with some trees..Tree 2

But the large Bramley at the bottom of the garden is going to need a little more effort and/or a crane 🙁

Tree 3

Dragonfly: almost emerged

We spotted a dragonfly trying to emerge from its nymph skin but the nymph had not attached itself securely to a reed….

…and so it struggled to free itself…

Get the Flash Player to see this video.


Once freed it sat recuperating for a while; so I stopped filming and it immediately took off into the summer sky…. somedays nothing seems to go right.

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