MONO MONDAY - NATURE

There is plenty going on in our garden at the moment, so having had  my shower, I decided that chilly weather notwithstanding, I would nip out into the garden in my pink robe.  Not a very good move, as I almost gave Mr. HCB palpitations when he came out of the greenhouse and saw me wandering across the lawn - I don’t know why it shocked him - he should be used to seeing me in my pink robe by now!

Anyway, off I went on a trek round the garden, looking for something to fit the Mono Monday challenge of “Nature”.  

I found lots of greenfly on our roses - they do need spraying at sometime, and now that the Great Tits have fledged, I won’t feel quite so bad doing that, but of course, we want to spray them with something that is “bird” and also “ladybird” friendly too.

Then I found some “cuckoo spit”, a white frothy liquid and protective bubble wrapping for a small insect known as a froghopper or a spittlebug.  These froghoppers suck the plant sap and distort the young growth of plants - this was actually on our thornless blackberry plants.  The name originates from the coinciding dates of the appearance of this foamy substance on plants and the arrival of the cuckoo, although the cuckoo itself does not actually spit! 

I had to Google exactly what a froghopper was and found out that adult froghoppers jump from plant to plant and that some species can jump up to 70 cm vertically: a more impressive performance relative to body weight than fleas.  Apparently, most of them are black, white or brown, but I didn’t actually see any of them, just the “spit” they leave behind.

Apparently, the cuckoo spit can be removed with a strong jet of water to wash off the hidden insects so perhaps whilst I’m still wearing my pink robe, it might be a good time to do that.

“I turned to the teeming small creatures 
     that can be held between the thumb and forefinger: 
          the little things that compose 
               the foundation of our ecosystems, 
                    the little things, as I like to say, 
who run the world.”
E.O. Wilson