This one with no pictures.
I’m feeling sorry for myself. At this time of year I look at the garden and see nothing but an overgrown, neglected, unkempt and, frankly, abandoned mess. And I wonder how this has happened? Given that I barely move away from this place. Ever? And this is all I do?
It’s not a huge amount of space. Why can’t I manage to keep it looking as I want it to?
The weather forecasts keep saying that there will be whole days when it won’t be drizzling, and there will be sun and just some white cloud. But everyday it seems the forecast gets amended to account for the fact that it is still drizzling, and that the sun and white cloud will be along later.
Watching everything in the garden collapsing into a mass of sodden, rotting vegetation is both frustrating and depressing.
However, the fungi are having fun. I collected these this morning and love all the different colours and shapes. And, yes, they’re all edible.
A Wasp Spider (Argiope bruennichi). These are spreading northwards in the UK, but came from Europe.
I first saw one a couple of years ago in the meadow near the house and watched it all summer. This one’s in the garden so I can see it whenever I go outside. The strange zig zag on the web is called a ‘stabilimentum’ and it’s unclear what it’s purpose is – but maybe it’s to ‘stabilise’ the web!
Anyway…I’ve found out more. The spider is a ‘she’. The male is tiny and boringly brown in comparison, and often doesn’t live long after mating. (Euphemism there, as the female kills him.)
The huge, basket/seed pod-like thing behind her is her egg sac. Carefully spun and then filled with eggs and then sealed. And guarded now in a new web.
When the proper cold weather arrives apparently she will die. The babies will overwinter in the sac and emerge in the Spring…
