Bristly-bum

The sun almost tried to shine for a while this morning, and I probably should have headed off to record some more quadrats. But I felt tired from Saturday's work so decided to give fieldwork a miss and use the time to try and catch up with a bit of gardening. The continual rain has made the lawn grow vigorously, and I desperately felt the need to exert a bit of control. I raised the mower blades and managed to get the lawn looking much tidier.

Chris helped me dig over part of a flower bed that has got infested with couch, and I then planted eight dahlia tubers, in the hope that they'll provide some autumn colour, and sowed some dark purple opium poppies and some bright Californian poppies . However I have a nasty feeling that they might all just get eaten by slugs!

By the time I'd finished gardening it had started to rain again! I managed to sneak out before the steady rain started, but found little that inspired me. So today you have the bristly back end of a very boring fly, feeding on the flowers of Alexanders. It seemed to be the only species prepared to face the dreary weather!