After the rain and some interesting critters found in the local area

I'm starting off with photos from two weeks ago when I was feeling up for a walk to the local track which we call the 'Melodious Warbler Walk'. The birds are still around but not melodious any more as they have stopped singing as mating season is well over. This time it was pretty dry but there were still a fair few wildflowers, notably Knapweed, which both butterflies and bees love. But it's getting a bit overgrown with this year's bramble growth so some of the wild plants are getting swamped. It was the only place I could see in the neighbourhood where the verges have not been chopped back, but as this is a farm track leading to some fields, it's not being managed the same way as proper roads where the council often seems to chop, hack and remove all growth just as the wildflowers are starting to look lovely!

My OH wandering up the track.

I was really chuffed to find a butterfly which I have only seen a handful of times - it's a Sooty Copper and for once, it's the female of the species which is the more colourful! The male's upper wings are a rather sooty grey with a few spots and only a vague hint of copper.

Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus), female.

Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus), female.

A warning as the next two photos are of a spider - BUT! This is the most amazing beautiful spider in northern Europe so go on, do have a look.....

I spotted this Wasp spider and was over the moon, as although we had one in our garden about 9 or 10 years ago, it was before I was really into spiders and whilst K took some photos, in those days digital cameras only took small pics and we didn't have macro lenses or functions on our cameras either. I've wanted to see one again ever since so I could have a better look and take my own photos. They are part of the Argiope family which are orb weavers, and the zigzag bit of the web is called a stabilimentum. Nobody really knows the reason for this but there are various theories.  

Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi).

Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi).

We went back yesterday looking to see if we could find her again, as I'd learned that they make their egg sac nearby and it is enormous - indeed the spider itself is rather large. But although we found not just this one again, but four more, we could see no signs of egg sacs. I was really pleased to see so many spiders as it means this is pretty good habitat for them; the place is crawling (or hopping!) with grasshoppers, which make up the vast majority of their diet, but seeing what was wrapped up for dinner in various webs they are happy to eat all sorts of other insects too. No shortage of food around here!

Jersey Tiger Moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria) feeding on Water Mint,
which was happily flowering in the ditch even though it was
very dry at that time. I guess there was still moisture in
the ditch as it is close to the water table here.

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) butterfly
feeding on bramble flowers.

And then the rain came just in the nick of time as the countryside was so dried out and looked so miserable. You saw the photos of my poor dried out garden and brown lawn! A week of heavy rain has done wonders and this August we have had more than double the average rainfall - many months in summer we get a lot less than the average which is why everything suffers, and our average rainfall is not very high anyway (about 50mm per month Feb to Sept for Rennes; there are no records for my local area of course apart from mine), which when you have free draining sandy soil is even worse! But now ten days later the countryside is green, the yellow leaves on the trees have blown off in the strong winds we had over a couple of days, and everything is breathing a sigh of relief. Including us, as we no longer have to spend time and money watering the garden!

In the woodland tiny thin blades of grass are emerging amongst the fallen leaves.

Since taking the photo below, only on 29th August, weeds had grown a lot! I hand weeded amongst the lettuce, coriander and spinach yesterday - first real gardening I've done in a while, if you don't count flicking off the eggs laid on the brassicas - not just from Small and Large White butterflies, but also those pesky Ornate Shield Bugs (Eurydema ornata) which eat my brassicas. It's so lovely to have damp soil, but even with the cooler weather my lettuce (in the first row) bolted. But that means happy chickens.

In the background are my purple curly kale and purple sprouting broccoli.
This year my English neighbour raised the seedlings and shared with me -
usually it's the other way round. We can't buy either of these
veg in France as they don't exist here!

There were casualties due to the rain and wind - this very tall hollyhock is now nearly prostrate despite having been tied up to the fence! And many sunflowers are leaning at 45 degrees whilst others have been completely uprooted. But it's late in the season and by this time of year I'm usually beyond caring. Nearly all the plums split open due to the sudden rain so we managed to harvest about 20 in all from two trees. The wasps are happy. However K has picked loads of pears from one of our trees which is having its most bumper year yet - so just hoping the ones in the fridge will hang on until I'm up to cooking a pear clafouti when I come out of the final chemo slump...... one of my favourite desserts.

Blocked gate!

Yellow and pink Mirabilis in the Pollinator Meadow.

Strangely this year my different Sedums are starting to flower all at the same time; they are usually staggered in their flowering times. Insects love sedums!

Just caught one quick snap of this Robber Fly as it landed -
I hadn't noticed it had a yummy fly lunch until I saw the photo!

First time this year I've managed to get some close up photos of a Holly Blue
(Celastrina argiolus), as this one was busy feeding on Sedum matrona.

Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus).

I'll be kind and not share the photos I just took of a poor Holly Blue still struggling in a spider's web with the spider crawling all over it!

This tiny bumble bee was enjoying the Sedums too.

22 Spot Ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata) and larva.
There were lots of both on some oak leaves.

A very cool looking Harvestman (Dicranopalpus ramosus).
ID thanks to JJ.

I found this Blood-vein (Timandra comae) moth just sitting on the lawn during the day!

Now for some eggs - I think they may be Common Green Shieldbug eggs (edit - probably not!) but won't know for sure until they hatch and I see the bugs. I've been watching them every day and you can see the changes in egg colour over the course of time. Close up (if you click on the image) you'll see what looks to me like little fish faces with smiles inside the eggs! This morning four of the eggs are white again indicating four have eclosed and there are two which appear black with something dark coming out of them - but it's too difficult to really see what is going on. These eggs were laid on Smokebush 'Grace'.

Photos taken on 18th and 28th August.

Here are some bugs seen in the last few days:
Top left: Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) nymph
Top right: Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) late instar nymphs
Bottom left: Striped Shield Bug (Graphosoma lineatum) adult
Bottom right: Common Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina) 4th instar nymph

And to finish, a pristine looking Peacock butterfly.
Although it appears its name has changed from Inachis io to Aglais io.
That's annoying as I have them labelled as Inachis in my database.

Bah humbug! My last lot of chemo was supposed to be tomorrow and Friday, but they have called to cancel because my platelet count has dropped too low. They will call to reschedule..... hmmm I guess that means a couple of weeks, then another blood test to check..... I really have no idea. I had just received an appt for an after chemo PETscan so maybe that will have to be postponed too. So frustrating and confusing too because 4 weeks ago my platelets had gone up to the healthy zone, then two weeks ago dropped down low again! So they must be very low now, but unlike the Oncologist who gets his results faxed or emailed through, I have to wait to get mine in the post, usually arriving the following Monday. I had SO wanted this to be over!

Frustrated of Brittany. :-(