Hope Valley , Derbyshire

Yesterdays Autumnal Weather on the Slopes of Mam Tor Derbyshire looking onward up the Hope Valley

Sunset on The Rocks

Quiz - Mystery Floristic

A Quick Quiz  Can any one nail this much maligned plant.

With the end of season approaching floristics are becoming harder to find Nettle and Ivy set aside and insects more urgent in their serch for sustainance . Ivy is always a ready source of Red Admiral end of October early November sun permitting

Rather than tell you want the plant is I have put the images up for YOU to identify , suggestions in comments

Although to most it seems baron and bereft here is a sequence of creatures feeding or utilising it today I counted at least 36 species in an hour its thick stems can also provide shelter and nesting site for small birds like Wrens to nest and Shelter

Araneus diadematus Orb Web Spider
Metalina mengei/metellina Orb Web Spider
Philaenus spumarius Froghopper
Ichneumon Wasp x2 Species
Apis melifera Honey Bee
Hoverfly Eristalis pertinax
Hoverfly Eristalis renax
Hoverfly Bacchus elongus
Hoverfly Xylota segnis
Diptera x4 Species
Sawfly
Tipula sp TBC
Tipula sp TBC
Sepis fulgens Ensign Fly
Strawberry Snail Trochulus striolatus

The grove snail or brown-lipped snail Cepaea nemoralis Leioburnum rotundum
7 Spot Ladybird
Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis Forms  Spectabilis succinea conspicua

Two Interesting images where the Garden Spider Araneus diadematus  Observed wrapping a Common Wasp in a s slick silk food parcel. Another included a Dung Fly straddling its prey a small solitary wasp . On deciding to examine the prey , the fly took off carrying this prey in its legs with some ease

Harvestman - Leioburnum rotundum

Baccha elongata Hoverfly Thin waist just visible

Syrphus sp

Strawberry Snail - Trochulus striolatus

Sawfly

Philaenus spumarus Froghopper

Cranefly Tipula (oleraceae) TBC Female

Ichneumon

Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis

Micro caddid 3 -5 mm

Autumn Approaches

“GATHERING LEAVES

Spades take up leaves

No better than spoons,

And bags full of leaves

Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise

Of rustling all day

Like rabbit and deer

Running away.

But the mountains I raise

Elude my embrace,

Flowing over my arms

And into my face.

I may load and unload

Again and again

Till I fill the whole shed,

And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,

And since they grew duller

From contact with earth,

Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.

But a crop is a crop,

And who's to say where

The harvest shall stop?” 

― Robert Frost

2293 Marbled Beauty Bryophila domestica ABH 73.084

2293 Marbled Beauty Bryophila domestica ABH 73.084 

1728 Garden Carpet Xanthorhoe fluctuata ABH 70.049

1728 Garden Carpet Xanthorhoe fluctuata ABH 70.049