I got home around 5:30 and sat by the pond for a while, drinking tea.
I spent a while digging around the edge in search of tadpoles / froglets - inspired by 6 tadpoles from school suddenly becoming frogs this week! Not one had changed since I took them back after half term and then suddenly it's 6 at once and I had to collect them all in a suitable box and send them home with Mrs M to be returned to the wild! I didn't find any tadpoles or frogs in the garden pond... maybe they're hiding, maybe they've already become froglets and hopped away. There were record numbers of water boatmen though!
I did notice a couple more aphids that have been parasitised by a wasp. I found one of these a few weeks ago and learned from Oliver's comment on that post that the aphid had become a host for a wasp egg. The ones I found today were not quite so advanced but I could see it was the same thing.
Self heal has started to flower this week in the lawn...
and bramble flowers are appearing too in the mixed hedges.
To add an extra bit of wild to my day, I decided to eat dinner outdoors this evening (yes that is pasta and a pie - I am a carb fiend!). It was pleasant to sit out with a bit of sunshine and cooler temperatures, listening to the birds singing and calling.
I came back indoors around 8:30pm, just as I received a tweet from Oliver to say that the wasps he mentioned a few weeks ago (when he commented on the post) had just featured on Gardener's World. I restarted the episode on the iplayer and really enjoyed learning a bit more about them. It turns out I've been noticing the parasitoid wasps in the garden for years without knowing what they were - I've always thought they were some kind of fly. Now I know and I'll be paying more attention to the aphids from now on! So, thanks to Oliver letting me know, I've learned something new and interesting about nature today :)
A look back...
Day 22 last year was just a quick wild activity, stopping to smell the roses... I had the same day at school that day as I had yesterday, out of the house 8am - 8pm!
The year before I took in the details in the garden, hunting for pattern and texture.
I'd not heard about the wasps doing that before though I did watch a little of Gardners World last night, clearly missed the wasp bit though. How funny i've just found Self Heal growing in my lawn a couple of days ago, I asked on twitter what it was as i've never seen it before, beautiful little plant!
ReplyDeleteGlad to have been able to introduce you to a new and helpful minibeast. :-D
ReplyDeleteOur lawn is full of self-heal too. Drooling over the pasta and pie! x
ReplyDelete