Nature's rare accessories

The tree of knowledge, eh? At Chelsea Flower Show a wicker sculpture (the sort of thing you might see festooned with tempting floral treats in a department store), formed the centerpiece of a ‘biodiversity display’. The aim: to seduce the public into doing anything and everything to encourage insects and birds to visit their gardens. However, only certain plants and flowers appeal to butterflies and bees... and possibly not the likes of this strangely inventive creation.

These days, all ‘great ideas’ seem to require celebrity endorsement. The tree of knowledge was no exception, with luvvies like Jeremy Irons and Greg Wise offering their penny’s worth. Mr Wise even penned a rather luvverly poem, imploring us to ‘be less tidy’, ‘let things rot’ and ‘embrace decay’. Cheers, Greg!





My favourite gardens are invariably where the wild things are. A stunning entry at the show was L’Occitane's Provencal garden with its luxurious lavender beds – great for bees… plus wonderfully gnarled olive trees and ruggedly unadulterated rocky terraces. M&G's traditional English garden was nice, and, I suppose, guaranteed to be a winner – being the show's official sponsor and all of that.





And Leeds City Council's garden, sponsored by Hesco Bastion, was awesomely overgrown, with the rather contrived addition of a model canal lock (I can’t imagine that was entirely cast from eco-friendly materials?)

Anyway, seeing these delightfully unkempt plots reminded me that the winged insect I haven’t seen much of in recent years (despite living by the river) is the dragonfly. Dragonflies apparently gobble up all manner of curious bugs, okay they eat some butterflies and bees too - but also mosquitoes, which could come in handy with global warming. They’re curiously colourful as well, and imbued with symbolism and cultural significance in many parts of the world.





At ShopCurious, we’ve been promoting the benefits of naturally beautiful things for ages, which is why we’ve got plenty of nature inspired jewellery and accessories on offer - this unique Art Nouveau style dragonfly brooch being the perfect example.

Knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but birds and bees are a safe bet any day. I reckon seeing a few more dragonflies might be good news for biodiversity too.

Do you?

A bug's life

If I mention a very curious bug, you'll probably think there's something wrong with my computer. But no, this is a really weird type of bug that appeared for the first time last year, moving sluggardly over the leaves of my lovingly nurtured little fig bush. Such was my curiosity that I tried to identify the bug in several different insect books and on the internet - but to no avail.



I spotted one of the mysterious bugs the other day on some lavender (see left and right- not on lavender) - and there's a baby one too. Does anyone know what this is and where it might have come from? Please don't tell me it's going to eat through all the plants on my terrace!






If you're also curious about the boundless biodiversity of nature, you might want to look at some of the unique vintage bug bangles available at ShopCurious. They're made from real bugs set in coloured resin, so every one is slightly different. Some of them are chunky sized and some are skinny. They look really stylish and individual, make totally unusual gifts - and they're also curiously collectable.Are you? Will you?