The garden continues to be my favourite place in the world, and today I was thinking about the role that accidents and luck can play in making gardens amazing.

For instance last winter there was a storm which blew most of our fence panels over. For various reasons one of these languished on the lawn for longer than it should have, and when we lifted it up and replaced the rotten posts and the old panel, we discovered that the lawn beneath was rather dead. We watered this patch and hoped it would recover, and to our surprise, in place of the grass which had previously been there, a little patch of wild flowers has appeared. The area is dense with self heal, white clover, jolly dandelions, and daisies. Some wild grasses have appeared too, and several plants which I cannot identify.

Although it destroys the neatness of the lawn to retain this little wild patch, when we saw how much the bees seemed to like it, Mark decided he would mow around it.

Truly, it is the most mysterious and lively patch in the garden.

Very happily, a Goldfinch has taken to visiting our weed patch to feed. It is shy and will not allow me to get close, but it did linger nervously in the trees round our garden long enough for me to get these blurry shots.

I am learning which of the trilling noises I often hear in the garden is produced by this very handsome bird, and am very relieved that neglecting to fix the fence panels has unexpectedly created a little wild patch, beloved by birds and bees, and full of things that we would not have known to plant.

Hurrah for happy accidents and the Goldfinches that they sometimes bring.