Ladybirds

Ladybird on yarrow stalk. (Doesn't look real, does it; but it is.)

Here's another. This one's by an elecampane seed head.

Iridescence

Fly on yarrow flowers.

The pleasures of fennel

Our beautiful fennel plant. It's about 6 feet tall. This is common fennel. The fennel that has the broad, bulbous base that's eaten as a vegetable is Florence fennel.

Hoverfly on fennel flowers.

We love fennel here. My seven-year old granddaughter and I pop a few seeds in our mouth from time to time for the pleasure of the aniseed taste and the mouth-refreshing effect. If we're out in the garden, we'll often chew a frond of the leaves or a few of the small flowers. Fennel seeds are good for the digestion. They can be chewed or drunk as a tea infusion. Fennel is rich in vitamin A and contains calcium, phosphorus and potassium.

These fat, juicy undried seeds are our favourite to chew, though they do taste quite strong.

Occasionally, I like to break up a few seeds with my nails and sprinkle them on top of tobacco in a cigarette, for an aniseed-scented smoke. I remember some cigarettes years ago, I think they were Malayan, that had cloves in them with the tobacco. They were an interesting and pleasant smoke too.

I already knew that mullein was a common ingredient in herbal tobaccos, but to learn more about what herbs can be smoked, I bought the book, 'Smoke Plants of North America' by M R Ross, about the plants smoked by the Indians. There's a recipe for a smoking mixture with fennel seeds, with hops, mullein, skullcap, damiana and mint. I haven't tried this mixture, but it seems an interesting one. The author says of it that she loves "the heavy, sensual calming effect of the hops and skullcap together. Hops has a funny smell kind of like ripe cheese, but it smokes with a nice flavor and no aftertaste."

Marigold and poppy companions

With the 'Black Magic' sunflowers.

This is the plot in the middle of the vegetable garden in which the 'Black Magic' sunflowers are growing. This plot is filled with marigolds, bordered with red poppy, and has those sunflowers in the middle in two groups of three.

The red poppies do an amazing job of attracting hover flies. The adult hover flies feed on nectar and pollen, and so aid pollination in the garden; and their larvae feed on aphids and other plant-sucking insects. I like the way a hover fly will stop mid-air, right in front of your face, and check you out.