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Garden notes in mid-May

The garden seems to be betwixt and between at the moment.  The plants which have been bringing colour and vibrancy to the flowerbed over the past months, wallflowers and tulips, are now on the wane, and their successors haven't yet come into their own.  There is an awful lot of greenfly, which I am loathed to treat because I don't want to jeopardise the wellbeing of visiting bees, but the aphids are creating havoc with the lovely Ravenswing cow parsley.

We have had one or two exotic visitors in the form of a male bullfinch this morning, stuffing his beak with dandelion docks, and a few handsome cinnabar moths fluttering around, with their intense colours of red and darkest blue-green.

In the garden :
And the outer garden :

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