Anniversary surprise

R and I went out for lunch today to celebrate our wedding anniversary (I'd tell you which one but I doubt you'd believe me, as I'm clearly not old enough to have been married this long), and when we got home I discovered that in our absence three Large Red Damselflies had successfully emerged from the patio pond. 

Even if all three had left the scene I would have been more than happy with the evidence of their exuviae, because when I was forced to clear out this pond and replant it last month there was no sign of life in the water, and I was certain that all previous residents had perished under the choking blanket of crassula; but I did a little Crash Bandicoot dance when I realised that the last of the trio was still present, hanging on to the stem she'd chosen as her emergence support. She was considerably less happy about this serendipitous meeting than I was, but the poor thing was still waiting for her wings to harden, so she had no choice about the mini photo-shoot I foist on her. Not wanting to cause her undue stress I made it snappy (I'm sure there's a pun in there somewhere), and then left her in peace, and when I went to check on her an hour or so later, she'd gone.

Nature is amazingly resilient.