Messing about with macro

I had a visit from a neighbour this afternoon to compare notes on the history of the houses in our road. I was able to show her all the original documents that I was given from every sale contract for this house from when it was built in 1904, and also tell her some historical facts about the area, with which she wasn’t familiar.

After she’d gone I took my macro lens out in the garden for a bit of a play, mainly in the wildflower area in the bottom corner. As you can see from the centre image of my collage, the ox-eye daisies have gone wild at the back of the ring of lavender behind the ornamental bird bath. At first sight there wasn’t much to photograph but, as I bent closer to the flowers, I saw lots of tiny creatures. 

Looking clockwise from top left, there’s a harlequin ladybird which has emerged from its larva, another Trivial Plant Bug (I’ve had it confirmed on iNaturalist), a hoverfly and, unfortunately, some carpet bugs. I’d never heard of these before, and I very much hope they stay in the garden and don’t find their way indoors.