Toasty

It was a warm and sunny day - once again, far too warm for the third week in November - and when I walked around the garden there were quite a few inverts out and about, basking in the sunlight. I didn't spend very long looking for a subject, because I had other things to do in advance of a visit by L and Baby B, but of the specimens I photographed this green shieldbug in winter livery is my favourite.

By transforming itself, essentially, to the colour of leaf mould, the shieldbug has maximised its chances of remaining unobserved and unpredated through the winter. If it survives, on emergence next spring it will rapidly change back to green, with suggestive red highlights around its nether regions, before seeking out a mate and completing its life cycle.

But what of Baby B, I hear you ask? Was he charming? Was he funny? Did he delight you with another round of new words? Why yes. And yes, and yes. He still declines to say 'Grandma', but he'll happily have a go at my given name - so R and I are "Dadd" and "Diwl". He can also now pronounce his own name, which according to L is new, though you wouldn't know it from the casual tone he uses - as though he's been saying it for months, and he's a little surprised that something so basic is eliciting so much attention and praise.