Matsouille

I found this lady bird resting peacefully protected under a cactus spines !!! I actually wondered how she managed to get under the spines as there very little space for such a bug. Another lady bird did not like spines as much as the first one so she rather chose one of my aloes.

Enough is enough ! I have too many of these lovely plants ! My sempervivums have grown and spread so largely that they're now overflooding my parents' garden. As a result, I brought them to my own garden but there is no way that they keep expanding the same way in mine !! I've planted some of them in small plastic pots with the aim to sell them ASAP and make more room for new plants (cactus, flowers and so on).

Last week-end we visited Espuma's mum home. The first aim of our visit was actually to fetch Espuma's LOOF,
the second aim was actually for his former master to see how she had grown-up. So Espuma saw her mum again but although she seems to recognize her, it apparently wasn't the case for the mum who did not quite like this sticky kitten. However Espuma quickly found back her very first habits just like climbing the fitted-carpet-walls.

Spidercat :

Here is one of the best pics of my kitten Espuma (Oriental cat) she is particularly talkative and loves being cuddled at any time !
She could probably sell her mummy for a yogurt. She joined our home on June 2009 and is now well at home !

Here are some miscellaneous pics of succulent plants snapped in Michel Steggmans' glasshouse (in Libercourt, France)

How lucky am I !
A friend of mine owns a lovely house with a large garden. Unfortunately, he hates gardening and has no passion in mowing the minor parcel of lawn. So I was more than enthusiastic when he offered me to have a parcel of his garden to grow any kind of cactus I would feel like ! Although the spinier the better to repulse cats from peeing in his garden. Of course it wasn't easy to clean the overgrown and get rid of weeds. However I finally managed to do so :

Since I've been living in Lille (For three years now) I am always looking forward to two main events organised in the city ! The first one takes place the last week end of April, and is the flower market, and the second one, which is much more famous is the huge flea market well-known in Flanders and other places of Europe ("Braderie" in French), which takes place the first week-end of September. So as you've probably guessed, the first one recently ended, and as usual some more cactus have found a new home on my balcony.

Here is an overview of my spiny ones !