Christmas Eve

It must be nearly Christmas, here's a Christmas beetle!

 Found in the back yard this afternoon.

The plants in my front garden got a Christmas present today - mulch!

 I while ago I mentioned that I was trying to find a mulch that would be alright to use here (can't find that post to link at the moment). We can't use wood-chips because of the fire danger, and I don't really want to cover my garden with pebble. In a comment, Dee suggested mushroom compost. Yesterday I found somewhere that sells mushroom compost, but then I noticed they also had this wool/manure mix. Wool definitely shouldn't burn!

This evening I spread it around all my plants. Hopefully it will stop them drying out so quickly. Tomorrow will be a test - it is going to be hot and very windy.