Huddle

The b***** b****** w****** - sorry, weather - has gone off again. Our wild garden is now in the state of acute bogginess it normally only achieves around midwinter, and the supposedly higher and dryer bits aren't much better. I'm so frustrated by the awful conditions, I barely know what to do with myself. What I mostly did with myself today was grump at my desk, catching up on boring things, but I did venture outside with the camera during the hour or so in the middle of the day when it wasn't actually raining.

It was a toss-up tonight between these woundwort shieldbugs and the female hairy-footed flower bee, who was making a brief rest stop (as well she might, given that the temperature was more November than May), and looked about as happy as I felt. I think the shieldbugs are maybe a little more interesting though. It's the time of year when I find pairs of them mating almost everywhere I look, and it's not unusual to see somewhat orgiastic behaviour going on; but I can only definitely see two coupled individuals here, and I think the rest are simply huddling in a mass roost, trying to keep themselves as warm as possible.

If you wake up tomorrow morning and hear screaming, it will probably be me, and in that case you won't need to go to the window to know that it's raining. Again.