Toning

Every summer for the past two or three years I've found a single Field Grasshopper in our garden, hanging out in the weeds at the foot of the old farm wall that separates us from the property next door. But only ever the one, even though it seemed obvious that there must surely be more. This season though, I've had the feeling that there were several of them playing hide-and-seek with me, and today I managed to get two in view at the same time - so I think I can now say with confidence that we're supporting a small colony here. This won't be welcome news to R, who hates it when the yard is full of weeds, but I'm confident he'll take the line of least resistance, and simply pass on to me the responsibility for making sure it doesn't disappear completely under jungle, and we can still get the cars in and out.

Field grasshoppers prefer dry sites with tall, thin-leaved grasses, and because of this they're more commonly found on heathland or coastal grassland than on arable or grazed farmland. This preference could also explain why they might have moved into the strip of weedy, grassy gravel at the edge of our yard - a warm and dry mini-habitat which could support a few grasshoppers provided they weren't too fussy about what they ate. Luckily these ones are said to be polyphagous, though they do primarily eat grasses. Female Field Grasshoppers lay their eggs directly into the soil, where they overwinter before hatching in the spring, and any laid in this strip of ground will be well protected from the cold and damp of a Worcestershire winter, because it lies at the base of a south-facing wall. I had been thinking of planting another shrub against it this coming autumn, but rather than dig over soil that might be harbouring next year's grasshoppers, I think I'll put the solanum somewhere else.

This evening I've had some tricky decisions to make about the winners and runners-up in this week's Tiny Tuesday challenge, but I enjoyed looking at all the excellent entries - so thanks to everyone who played. In the order they came off the pack, my hearts this week go to:

KangaZu 

Carolina 

DawnP 

kwdiane 

Incredibish

And I'd like to give Honourable Mentions to these folk as well:

sofiavillanueva 

DonnaWanna 

MoiraD 

HareBrain 

AH14 

isbi

I hope you'll all play again next week - my last at the Tiny Tuesday helm for the foreseeable future - when the tag will be TT531.