Ichneumon wasp

The day dawned deceptively bright, encouraging me to head down to Brampton Wood to do some quadrat recording. I knew that rain was forecast but checked the radar maps before setting out and calculated that I might have until about 1 pm before it started. The clouds were already gathering on the journey down, and I only had time to do five quadrats before the rain started just before midday.

Despite the weatherI was pleased that I'd made a bit more progress, and the cool, damp conditions mean that the bluebells and other spring flowers are lasting well. It's very unusual to have primroses, violets, bluebells, greater stitchwort and yellow archangel all in full flower at the same time - the delicate tracery of yellow, blue and white reminded me of a Medieval tapestry.

My other finds were somewhat less picturesque. I came across a large, crenulate, jelly-like fungus on a hazel branch, which I subsequently identified as brown witches' butter Tremella foliacea. I also added a few more bryophytes to my list, including a patch of greater featherwort Plagiochila asplenioides. This leafy liverwort is somewhat local in eastern England, but I suspect is present at very low frequency in most of the larger ancient woodlands on damp clay.

Once again I ended up trying to get a blip in the garden between the rain showers. There was so very little light that I had to use the ring-flash to capture this ichneumon wasp. Despite their bright colouring, ichneumons are very hard to identify and I have no idea what species this is! I have to say the weather is sapping my blip mojo, and the rest of life is also gathering pace. The last few days I gave myself a little blip break, as my heart wasn't really in it. I've now back-blipped the missing days, but there's nothing of particular note to view.

Like many others, I've been thinking of Molly today. She always commented on my photographs with such perspicacity - I still miss her wise and witty observations. Gone, but not forgotten....