Autumn

We're experiencing familiar northern hemisphere cooling as autumn approaches, with temps dropping to 47° F overnight and warming to between 57° and 65° F during the day. Robins still bathe regularly in our mini 'lake'.

It's crisp and beautiful outdoors in the daylight hours. I especially love the smell of quinces ripening in the sunshine.

Quinces in June

Quinces in September

Quince paste and quince jelly is now on my 'to-do' list ... We don't have a functional heating system in the house yet - our heat pumps are scheduled for installation in the last weeks in October, but I'm expecting it will be later than that. We have a small woodstove, which we might be forced to use before then.

Quiz Answer

The beautiful pattern from yesterday is the abdomen of a European garden spider, Araneus diadematus, an orb weaver. 

The suggestions I got were fascinating, and could conceivably have been:

a cowrie shell

snake skin

mould

something Dale needs to have looked at by a professional

frog/toad skin

caterpillar

some kind of plant

two people suggested it might be part of an insect,

and one said

an arachnid! (which it is)

Every time I went back to re-photograph it, the little rascal would scurry off into the brush. Why? Because spiders have sensory hairs on the legs and bodies that alerts them to puffs of air and vibrations. These thin hairs on their legs and bodies are called trichobothria - so effective and sensitive.

Quiz Time

 What is this? Do you have any ideas?

I've had to keep it small so as not to lose definition ...

 Answer will be posted tomorrow ...

Count My Spots

The Seven-spot Ladybird beetle is an aphid hunter, and here's one honing in on its banquet of rose aphids (those little green guys on the stem, and under the furthest leaf - there are a lot of them).

The scientific name of this little native is Coccinella septempunctata, literally translating as the 'seven-spotted scarlet beetle, so apt!

Just look at this fierce face - it must be terrifying for an aphid to see this armored, dome-shaped tank approaching!