Thunder Thighs

A day that promises rain and thunderstorms surprises us by opening up to sunshine in the afternoon. Garden project completed, G feels there’s time for a gentle mini-adventure and I opt to visit a place close to home that somehow we’ve always missed. 

Close to my long-time favourite place at Sychnant, there’s a small nature reserve called Pensychnant  housed within a quant Victorian estate. We have a wander round the ancient wooded hillside alive with birdsong and thick with vegetation before returning to the house where there’s a garden serving tea and cake - we have to partake of course! We discover there’s a whole programme of events held here that we’ve been missing out on, so there’s little doubt that we’ll return. 

I spend some time wandering around the wild garden area taking photographs, when suddenly a gleam of metallic green catches my eye and I see this strange insect feeding from a pink geranium, bright emerald bulbous pouches on its thighs. It’s the aptly named thick-legged flower beetle, or, even better, the swollen-thighed flower beetle. I may well have seen females of the species in the past, but I don’t ever recall these glorious thunder thighs before! 

I watch him for a while as he grazes on the flower’s nectar, then see him launch himself across the garden, a green fairy flying through the air - my two extras today.