A strange tuber

My daughter found this growing in a corner of our garden. She pulled it from the ground and I don't know how much damage she did to the roots. 

I tried to put it back in the soil hoping it will survive the rough handling.

Can anyone help me identify it? Thanks!

A friendly reminder: please contact me if you intend using any materials from this blog. It's nice, and it's the law! thank you.

Sunday morning visitor

Working in the garden on a Sunday morning can be a lesson in delayed gratification. Or not! Today our humble work-in-progress of a garden was graced by a Woodland kingfisher / Halcyon senegalensis / Martin-chasseur du Sénégal, which remained long enough for me to take dozens of pictures. I'm afraid it's a bit obvious how enthusiastic I got.

A friendly reminder: please contact me if you intend using any of the material on this blog. It's nice, and it's the law. Thank you!

Ground cover

This is what my ground cover (Purslane / Portulaca grandiflora / Pourpier à grandes fleurs) looks like in the morning. The flowers don't remain open all day but the magic repeats itself every day!

I only planted about 50 out of the 200+ I bought, to check spacing since the information I found varied greatly from one source to another. After a month or so, it looks like they spread just fine when planted about one foot apart. I can now work at putting the rest of them in place. They came in several colours, 

but somehow the hot pink ones seem to be stealing the show.

A friendly reminder: please contact me if you intend using any materials posted on this blog. It's nice, and it's the law. Thanks!