h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

With camera envy!

Great shot!

I concur with FWR although I am envious of his bumblebee shots. Do these flies bite? The deer flies around here do. They aren't much bigger than house flies, but you'll know it if they settle on you.

I third that!!!


now the daft bitmam wanted me to wear the turquoise outfit

"mam wanted me to wear the turquoise outfit"

Yes indeed - no blue outfit that day!

Yes, I like the bumblebee pictures, too - fascinating comparison A87913650

I don't think blue/greenbottles bite often - they mostly eat animal waste, so it is important to make sure they don't contaminate food by landing on it.

I've not heard of deer flies before, but they sound a bit like horse flies, which can give a nasty bite indeed...

Beware of horseflies, they're bloody heavy if the land on you

Electra, that sounds like Clegg flies, which we have in the UK (avoid Loch Eribol, if you ever come to Scotland, the fly bites round there are terrible! (no apologies to William McGonagle). It's a greenbottle, which is a variation of the bluebottle and no it doesn't bite (or bark)

Horse flies Prof? I thought they had raspy voices?

I was ready to be at blowflies, but it turns out that they are innocent of harm to my roses. It is sawflies that lay eggs on leaves, where the larvae decimate the green areas.

Neigh Paige, not as I know of

You seem to have a lot of problems with your garden it seems. I recently had to move two plants as they were both in the wrong position to thrive (hydrangea in unsheltered spot, stunted by frost every year / Rhododendron in sheltered spot that was killing it - doing better now; swapped them both round). If you are in the UK you might like to look up Roy Lancaster's book Perfect Plant, Perfect Place as it cover's this very subject)

I'm sort of in charge of a lot of gardens. I try things to see what will happen. Knockout Roses are not doing as well as I had expected this year, but last year they were fine. The wild roses are all doing well.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roy-Lancaster-Plants-Horticultural-Society/dp/0993389252




PS. I'm not a gardener physical shape wain't allow me t'bend as such.
I'd be happy with plastic grass

There's a high-end shopping mall near me that just put in some plastic grass.

we have a place in town also, but to put plastic grass down "here" it'd get nicked overnight

Our patch of plastic grass is home to a very large checkers board, with oversized checkers. I've seen people playing checkers there.

Oh wow - that's a great idea for a park activity! Mention of plastic grass reminded me of this one A87913083 that had to install astroturf after the real turf quickly wore away with the amount of foot traffic on it

in our local town "valley gardens" = bowling green, plenty of play area/flowerbeds etc. There is a small paddling pool for the young'uns, except that the local "more rons" kept smashing bottles in it so it's never used now. It also it had a small aviary with a few birds in - same thing = yob destruction

It's sad that people would hurt little ones that way.

Yes, that is sad that some people can't get enjoyment from respecting things, so destroy them instead

Very good to see some parks being well used, though, so that everyone can enjoy them. I'm very lucky that my area is good for that - eg Birkenhead Park A87862198 was victim of antisocial behaviour for a time, but it was brought back to be a great place to visit

Unfortunately, ours is also a late night "venue" for druggies now