Presents to buy, parties to organise, food to cook, relatives to entertain…..I probably don't need to remind you that Christmas is coming!

It doesn’t leave you much time to spend in the garden, but just spending a few minutes out there might be what you need to relieve some of the stress.

So I’ve come up with 12 things that are easy to do in the garden in the run-up to Christmas, which you can mix and…

Last weekend, something happened in my garden that had never happened before: I caught all my birds.

I should explain. A colleague and all round good-egg, Rich, and his lovely dad Peter came round to 'ring' the birds in my garden.

I'm sure that many of you are familiar with bird ringing, but if not, it is a technique in which very fine nets (called 'mist nets') are slung between two poles.

Birds…

Once in a while, I bring you a blog that is little more than a set of photos, because nature sometimes speaks for itself.

Today's is of a Sparrowhawk. He had just finished bathing in my pond, which is thrilling enough in itself, but on this occasion he decided to come and sit in a myrtle tree outside my bedroom window. (I originally thought it was a female based on the brown colouring, but have since discovered it is…

Ok, here's a little challenge for you. Just  a few weeks ago, I was noseying around in a bush in a friend's garden, when I suddenly realised that something was looking back at me.

See if you can find it.

I moved into another position to get a different view. Now there were two things looking at me.

Have you worked out what they are yet?

Here's a close up of one of them in case you need a better view.…

On a recent trip to the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley gardens in Surrey, I was pleased to see their trial of wildlife-friendly hanging baskets.

Before I show you the pictures, remember this is late autumn - they were not looking their best!

In fact, let's start you off with their information board about it all, to show you how seriously they have been taking it:

You can see that their focus has been…