Teasel "little bason"

Back blipping on Sunday morning

A much nicer day, but I noticed that our many teasels had lots of little pools left over from the rain over the last few days.  Having introduced a teasel plant into the garden a few years ago, we now have lots of self seeded ones - we don't mind, the plants are attractive, easy to remove if they are in the wrong place, and the seed heads provide food for the birds in the winter.  Reading up on this prior to blipping, I came across this interesting article in the Guardian.  The little black and yellow ladybird you can see on the edge of the leaf needs to take care not to fall in.  

I also found mention that the water in the pools was considered to have healing properties - anyone fancy applying this insect soup to your face?  It is supposed to be particularly good for irritation and swelling of the  eyes and for your complexion. 

On Friday evening, we were lucky enough to see the green woodpecker again.  We were eating our dinner in the garden room, and he hung around long enough for me to fetch my camera, so I was able to get some better photos (one added in extras), and a video. The red stripe in his black moustache tells us he is definitely a male.  His diet is ants - we have an abundance of those in the garden.