Meanwhile, what's been happening in the garden?

Time for a break from holiday photos and a catch up with the garden.

These photos are from July, August and September, and I'll post them in date order. Back in July I saw this young Praying Mantis (Mantis religiosa) walking along the wall of the house. It was only about 4cm long.

I've seen some new to the garden butterflies this summer, the first of which I was really pleased to see - the Lulworth Skipper (Thymelicus acteon)! They used to love my lavender at the last house too.

I'm not sure what this butterfly is below, possibly a Common Blue. I only saw its underside.

True Bugs. Left is a Fire Bug (Pyrrhocoris apterus), known in France as a Gendarme. Middle top and bottom is a Red Shield Bug (Carpocoris mediterraneus), presumably not in its final instar which will be red, and right is a seed bug called Spilostethus pandurus.

The geraniums looked great for a couple of months until the naughty Geranium Bronze butterflies had their wicked way with them, but by then the Bidens which was also in many of the pots took over. Bidens is the orangey flowering plant in the foreground - and they are still looking like this now in November, although the flowers have turned a darker orange. What a great plant! There is also a Lantana amongst these plants - all the Lantanas survived the winter and have been flowering around the pool all summer and some still have flowers on even now.

August and the tomatoes and chillies were doing well.

I made four new tomato plants from the side shoots which had grown whilst we were away in June; it's a great way to get free plants so long as you can propagate this way early enough to get a crop.

I was so happy to see flowers on my Lagerstroemia shrub as it's the first time it has bloomed since we moved here. I love these shrubs so much I even bought a new one as I'd given up on this one! Guess what? They both had flowers on this year! I'm not sure why the leaves were this colour, they do seem to be more of a copper colour but I think the intensity is due to the dry conditions. The ones I see when driving around all have green leaves though.

Now onto September: Me and my shadow. 😀 I didn't want to crop the picture! This is the first summer for the Nectar Bar and it's done remarkably well given the dry conditions. We did start watering after a while as some plants were not doing well, even so, it's fairly impossible to water enough, and with our water restrictions we couldn't use the hose after about July/August. You can see how dry the grass was!

We had a decent rainfall at the end of September which has greened things up a lot, but since then only small amounts of rain, so most of the trees and shrubs this autumn are just a dull yellowy brown. October (whilst we were away!) was also a warm month, so there haven't been any frosts yet, which I think also help with autumn leaf colour. 

This end was quite full and floral compared to the other end. I had no idea the Gaura would be so big, and the Sage 'Hot Lips' (foreground) has flowered its face off from about June to now. The other sages haven't got as established and are much smaller.

It felt quite autumnal when the berries formed on the Pyracantha hedge!

These garlic chives in a pot will be divided up and moved to my Nectar Bar next spring. The ones in my herb bed have self seeded and the new plants are already flowering! Insects love them, the flowers look great, and the leaves are of course, garlic flavoured chives! Win win. 👍

Another new to the garden butterfly has been the Brown Argus (Aricia agestis). I first spotted a pair mating when I didn't have a camera with me, but luckily I saw them again. I'm not sure if this is a male or female, as they both have sex brands (the dark mark on upper forewing).

The third butterfly I saw was a Long-tailed Blue (Lampides boeticus). I saw one in my garden in Brittany so it's not a lifer, but still special. I saw one in the garden again since we came back from holiday, at the beginning of November, but I didn't have a camera either time!

Then there is this one, who for the life of me I cannot ID! It's old and worn, with the outer white edges of the wings worn away, but mostly it's the white markings at the bottom of the upper hindwings which puzzle me. It also has the extra markings on the underside of the forewing which not many Blues have. It's possible it is an Adonis Blue?? Hmmmm. 😕

A final photo of a 5-spot Burnet moth (Zygaena trifolii).

You can see that the most popular nectar plants for butterflies and moths are Lavender, Perovskia (aka Russian Sage), and Sedum. I'm looking forward to this Sedum growing bigger in the future. Given that I have spring bulbs planted, and there are still plants flowering, it looks like I should get about eight to nine months of nectar for the insects! 👍😀

P.S. Whilst we are on an insect post, do you remember this caterpillar I came across back in April, which was crossing the road? I've since discovered that it's the larva of the Glanville Fritillary butterfly!

Finally - phew, it is SO much easier blogging on my desktop, compared to my ipad!!! 😀

It's starting to feel a bit like autumn

I'm one of those people who refuse to accept that it is autumn before the due date, i.e. the autumn equinox. However all the signs are appearing, from the cooler mornings with dewy grass showing up tiny webs which I try not to step on, and larger orb webs visible when I let the chickens out early in the morning. After the rain some shroomy things have been appearing, though not like the amounts we'll get later on in real autumn. Robins seem to have returned; although I don't think they go away, they always seem absent during the summer and then appear to come back because they start singing when the others birds stop, and continue singing all through the winter. Thank goodness for Robins! The late summer butterflies are back and lovely and colourful, ditto the late summer damselflies and dragonflies I see here. And we are eating our pears and it won't be long before the first apples are ready - they are already looking plump and red on our best eating apple trees. 

Gathering pears - we have two more trees
but there are not many on them.

Looking for Wasp Spiders at home with a helper.
We didn't find any here.

The bit of lawn that was brownest is greening up nicely,
although half of that green is weeds!
Some bits have had to be mown already.

A fat fungi I've never seen before -
the stalk is more than an inch in diameter.

About four feet away this little one came up,
which after three days is now looking like the one above.
Any ideas anyone?

This is a nymph of the Striped Shield Bug (Graphosoma lineatum),
the red and black stripey bug.

This true bug I have no idea! All I know is that it's not the
Green Shield Bug (Palomena prasina) cos I found one in the garden
and checked out its underside..... I love the colours, whatever this is!
And before you ask, I have no idea why I did not take
a photo of its top side..... hmmm!

Back to those bug eggs again - this is the best I could do.
They do look like tiny bugs emerging, but as the eggs are 1mm wide,
I really can't do any better than this.

On the M. W. Walk, we came across this beautiful dragonfly.
It's a Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta) and probably a young male,
as the mature males tend to have a blue/brown abdomen.

I had to take a few photos as I've never seen this dragonfly before so here it is again.....
Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixta)

At home the Western Willow Spreadwings (Lestes viridis, or Chalcolestes viridis) have appeared.
They are always happy to perch on vegetation near the pond.

Western Willow Spreadwing (Lestes viridis, or Chalcolestes viridis).

Another Harvestman, quite different from the one I showed last post.
I've never delved into Harvestman identification so I'm hoping JJ might know! :-)

Sawfly larvae on a small Alder tree by the pond.
This one in the foreground has just had a moult, and you can see the
discarded skin under the first three true legs on the twig.
Its head will darken up like the other one after a few hours.

On the same tree I found this tussock moth larva. It looks very like a Vapourer Moth (Orgyia antiqua) but the tail end is a bit different and not the normal dark colour. However I can't find any other European tussock moth whose caterpillar looks remotely like this, so maybe it isn't a final instar one??

Vapourer Moth (Orgyia antiqua) caterpillar - I think!

Vapourer moth (Orgyia antiqua) caterpillar - I think!

This moth was on a stinging nettle by the orchard -
it doesn't have a common name, only Latin, Carcina quercana.

Butterflies gorging on rotting plums - Red Admiral, Peacock, Comma and in the pic bottom left,
there are two Commas and a Red Admiral. I'm too lazy to add Latin names but you
European peeps know these butterflies well!

I'm adding a final photo but I'll keep it hidden from those who don't like spiders so you will have to click to see it. I had been doing a bit of gardening and whilst wandering around, felt something tickling my shoulder. I put my hand inside my T-shirt and felt something furry! Eeeks! I freaked thinking it might be a wasp or a bee, as I react badly to wasp stings and don't fancy being stung by anything, particularly right now; lord knows what would happen with my buggered immune system. So I hurriedly stripped off down to bra in the garden (not overlooked thank goodness!), turned my T-shirt inside out, and was hugely relieved to find it was 'only' a large Cross Orb Weaver! Phew. :-) Pic here.

After a lovely few days it looks like cooler wet weather is coming back again but at least I got out away from the house twice this week, and I'm meeting up with friends for lunch next week and desperately need to get a hair cut too (preferably before seeing friends...). So many things to do whilst I've got a bit of energy. Still not heard from the hospital as to when my last chemo will be, but quite frankly right now I don't care! 

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. :-(