The maximum temperature here today is 14⁰C, minimum 11⁰C. South-West winds of 23 km/h with gusts up to 46 km/h. We have had close to 180mm of rain in the past week and it is still raining as I type this!!
20/09/23 Sunset.
23/09/23 I think this is a Common Blue female but it was a particularly small specimen. (Polyommatus icarus).
23/09/23 Marmalade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus).
24/09/23 Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta). Enjoying the falling figs.
25/09/23 Common Wall Lizard (Podarcis muralis).
25/09/23 Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera). I thought that I was only going to get one flower, but suddenly I am seeing a lot of new buds!
28/09/23 House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) enjoying a hot day in the water.
01/10/23 a garden collage.
Autumn daffodil/crocus, cyclamen. clematis, pampas.
02/10/23 Left top, centre and right bottom are all calendulas, Californian poppy and a late Pumpkin flower are also at the top. Left centre is topinambour, and right centre is the autumn daffodil/crocus. Bottom left is a tomato flower, and central is one of the many ripening quinces.
03/10/23 An interesting morning sky, the sun was not quite up yet.
04/10/23 and yet another sunset.
06/10/23 A Dendrobium Violet orchid. It is a large plant and covered in blooms, an 80th birthday present from a friend in South Africa.
08/10/23 Scarce Copper butterfly (Lycaena virgaureae).
0810/23 Hot stuff, I am not sure which chilli this is. It grew on a bush in the greenhouse that was just under 183 cms tall (6 foot). It was covered in these quite small slender chillies. The seed came from a friend's plant. I might add that there are still quite a few chillies on it, but as a frost is forecast for 9 Nov, it may not survive much longer. The greenhouse is not heated. Plenty of seeds though for next year 😊 🌶️
11/10/23 Choisya ternata with a Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera).
12/10/23 dozens of Harlequin bugs (Graphosoma italicum) on the Topinambour (Helianthus tuberosus).
13/10/23 Wood Pigeons (Columba palumbus).
Those harlequin bugs are quite something! I love how you arrange your gorgeous photos!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Marie, I find too many flower pictures get a bit much so they are better in a collage! I hope all is well with you, Diane
DeleteMorning sky and sunset are just beautiful. We have been having rain since last week....DAILY! It's annoying.
ReplyDeleteJust so much rain at the moment but we are still quite a way off of our average yearly rain fall. Thanks so much for the comment, Diane
DeleteYes please send us some rain. For a minute there I thought the chilli was 6 foot tall. hee hee
ReplyDeleteLOL can you imagine a chilli that size. They are quite small and slender but they pack quite a punch!! I hope all is well with you and Bill, take care t'other Diane
DeleteI'm sorry to hear about all your rain Diane. It is much the same here this week and I don't think I will get our birding until weekend or more. Those harlequin bugs are fantastic but I'm guessing they eat something or other of your plants. Be carful of those chillies. I grew a similar plant and then wished I'd not tasted a harmless looking tiny chilli because it was incredibly hot.
ReplyDeleteHi Phil, it looks like this rain is with us for a bit longer yet - sigh! That bug seems to eat some of the plants, but it is inclined to go for the wild plants in preference, though the nymphs I often see in the vegetable garden. Unless they really become a nuisance I let them be. Those little chillies pack quite a punch, but not as bad as my habanero that grew well this year. I have the red ones which are the mildest of the habanero, but they are still high on the Scoville scale at 100,000. I handle with care!! I cook with chillies all the time!!
DeleteKeep dry and keep warm, cheers Diane
Hi Diane. You are as, as always, giving us a real feast of images. Your sunset shots are wonderful, but that pre-sunrise shot is amazing.
ReplyDeleteBy the clarity and size of the orange spots at the front of the forewings, I suspect that your 'blue' is a Brown Argus - probably a female. It would need a shot of the underside of the forewing to clinch that ID, however.
Your flowers are gorgeous, and I'd love to see a Harlequin Bug!
Best wishes to you and Nigel - I hope you get a dry spell soon so that you can get on with all those outside jobs. Take goos care - - - Richard
Hi Richard, It is not often I get up that early these days, I so wanted a sunrise, but we were too early and I could not wait as Nigel had a medical appointment the other side of Angouleme. When I got home and downloaded this photo I was amazed at how good it was, the clouds combined with the vapour trails were amazingly effective. Taken with the small Nikon Coolpix S7000 which is soooooo old now. Nigel wanted me to update it, but they do not make the same model anymore and cameras of that size now all seem to be in 4 figures!! I wish I could get mine cleaned but there is nobody nearby.
DeleteRe the Blue, I put it on 'Dordogne wild life' as an Argus and I was told it was a very small Common blue, so in fact I agree with you but the powers that be don't!!!!!!!! We get those Italian stinkbugs every year they are very attractive.
I hope that all is well over there, wishing you both all the very best, cheers Diane
Better start getting ready, Diane, I have it on reliable authority that it is going to rain for yet another forty days and forty nights, and the Charente is going to become the site of the End Times Noah’s Ark, although this one will be called Diane’s Dingy! That’s barely more over the top than some of the whacky comments coming from religious fanatics south of the border, especially those who now claim that God (yes, Her) has placed one of their own in the Speaker’s chair in the House of Representatives, following on the heels of the divine appointment of Donald Trump as President, followed by the recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel. The events in the Middle East are simply filling biblical prophesy, and if a few thousands should get killed and suffer, they were all heathens anyway. While I wait for the trumpets and the golden chariots to arrive I will simply take joy in your marvellous pictures. You are a macro photographer par excéllence. An insect a day is balm to the soul of this poor sinner! Bonne journée et gros bisous de ton ami canadien- David
ReplyDeleteBonsoir David, Diane's dingy is afloat at the bottom of the garden but thank goodness we live in high ground. We are still, so Nigel tells me, about 400mm short of our average rainfall for this time of the year!!
DeleteI have given up with politics, they have no idea how to tell the truth and they do not seem to care a hoot who gets hurt along the way. I am just very grateful that I am not any younger.
Thanks so much for your very kind insect comments, but sadly they are disappearing fast from the garden now and they will mostly only be back in spring here. Never fear though, I am sure there will be insects in Namibia :-)
Bonne nuit de France mon ami. Bisous Diane
You have a lovely variety of pictures. The pepper looked tasty.
ReplyDeleteHi Emma and good to hear from you. They are very small slender chillies put they pack quite a punch!!!
DeleteI hope all is well with you. Take care Diane
How many beautiful photos! Nature is amazing!
ReplyDeleteSorry for all that rain. Since yesterday Italy is under rainstorms, luckily here we are safe but there is a very strong wind from NW.
Thanks so much for the visit, I hope that you are feeling a bit better but I know how it hit us, your fitness level will sadly have dropped. Glad that you are safe from the weather, it has been awful, at least we are only saturated, the house is dry and we are on high ground. Take care and recover slowly. Saluti Diane
DeleteLots of great pics of little insects. I love watching and shooting critters and insects. We need rain. Our fall was not pretty at all due to lack of rain.
ReplyDeleteThanks Pam, good to hear from you. We had a very dry summer, but we are starting to catch up with all the rain we are getting now!! Keep well, Diane
DeleteWow, stunning photos!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the visit and the comment much appreciated. Have a good weekend, Diane
DeleteI am always so impressed with your photos Diane, each one is absolutely superb. Cheers and have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much Denise. Moving into winter now so insects are difficult to find. In fact photos are much more difficult to take with the lack of subjects! Happy weekend, Diane
DeleteHi Diane, it's great to see you blogging again and sharing all your beautiful photos. If Nigel says you still have 400 cm of rain to go before you reach the norm, you must have suffered drought. We certainly have here and now it's raining a lot. I love your sunset photo and my favourite is of the little sparrows splashing in the bath. Keep well.
ReplyDeleteHi Penny, I blog when I can but it seems to have been a busy year! In winter subjects are more difficult to find, but we will be going South in January so hopefully more chance of good photos.
DeleteYes we had a very dry summer and I am amazed that we had such a good crop of vegetables and fruit with just hand watering! Take care and have a good weekend, Diane
Great set of pictures - the long term forecast for most of Australia in that we will have a hot and dry summer - that's not really good news.
ReplyDeleteCheers - Stewart M - Melbourne
Hi Stewart, We had a very dry summer and some places had lots of fires but luckily, not much around us though we did on some days get the smoke from far South. I hope that you do not have too many fire problems, not good for the wildlife apart from all the other reasons. Cheers Diane
DeleteI love your photo of the chili. So simple, but there is something about it that really draws the viewer in!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the visit and the comment, much appreciated. Have a great weekend, Diane
DeleteHi Diane - still raining here! It has been deluging - I've managed to miss most of them, or get damp getting home. Amazing colour of the chilli - bet it's hot. The lizard and the house sparrows are lovely to see ... that orchid is a great present ... gorgeous to see and read through - cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteThanks Hilary, we have had a good collection of chillies this year, most are very hot :-))) I think the Lizards have now all gone to bed until next year. Have a great weekend, cheers Diane
DeleteBonsoir Diane.
ReplyDeleteÇa pour pleuvoir il pleut, et en grande quantité. Cependant nous ne sommes pas aussi sinistrés que le Pas de Calais. Les pauvres. La tempête a fait quelques dégâts mais rien de très grave.
C'est bon de revoir toutes ces couleurs du jardin
Gros bisous mon amie et à bientôt
Merci Nathalie. Il continue de pleuvoir ici mais oui, pas de réels problèmes, juste très humide.
DeleteDemain, pour le jour du Souvenir, le temps est censé être sec - je me demande si les prévisions sont bonnes !
Bisous mon amie Diane
They are beautiful photos with lots of color. I enjoy that. Here, we also had rain, but in the central part of the Netherlands, we had occasional sunshine. I actually sat outside twice this week with my winter coat on and a book in my lap. Vitamin D, you know.
ReplyDeleteI hope the weekend brings you some less rainy weather. Let's not lose courage.
Hi Aritha, it sounds like we have a dry morning tomorrow for Remembrance day which will be a bonus, but it is still raining most of the time!! I had one day that I managed to get a bit of gardening done this week but that is all. Sitting outside was not a good idea here. Keep well Diane
DeleteGreat set of photos. Amazing shots.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the visit and the kind comment, much appreciated. Take care Diane
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