Small, strange and spooky

Posted bymaryjane678Posted inUncategorizedTags:, , ,

Welcome to the latest blog on March 12th 2021

Michael found this wildflower – who needs to plant up borders when these are all around?

I’ve been wandering about with my camera looking for interesting things on the small scale this week and found no shortage of candidates. Sometimes I look up the names of the plants and creatures we come across, but invariably I will have forgotten them by the next day! So today I will let the pictures do the talking for a change and we can all enjoy them for what they are, mysterious miracles .  I hope you enjoy them.

Moss on log on a frosty morning
I found these growing on a mossy treestump by the van. I’ve walked past them for months and never noticed them before.
A seed head of a dandelion – I shall never think of it as just a weed ever again
Can you guess what these are?
Here’s the answer. Black caterpillars newly arrived in a cluster on the grass track in our field. I expected them to disperse but four days after I took this picture they’re still there.
And what do you think this is? It’s only a couple of mm long and we assumed it was a bit of lichen on our picnic bench – but then it started moving! Wonderful camouflage, whatever it is
Same lichen, but a different perspective to give you an idea of scale.
And here’s the spooky one. This is our woodburner. Can you spot the face at the back? Actually I can’t look at this too much – it freaks me out.

And that wraps it up for this week. Next week marks the anniversary of a year of blogging, as well as a year since we went into our first lockdown, so it will be a bumper blog with lots of pics. Wishing you all the best.

MJ

10 thoughts on “Small, strange and spooky”

  1. Be careful of those caterpillars. I don’t think they are pine processionary caterpillars, since they are too black. Those are the ones you mustn’t touch under any circumstances, as they cause serious skin irritation and can kill animals. But it’s a good idea not to touch caterpillars full stop, since they can often cause skin irritations, even if more minor. You probably weren’t intending to, but just in case! Lovely pix. It’s so good to see nature coming back to life.

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  2. Really good photographs. They are worthy of winning competitions. Good camera too. I agree that Michael’s reflection looks very spooky!

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  4. You have found some great things on your explorations. The photo of the cup lichen is pretty cool, as are the creeping caterpillars. They’ll probably morph into beautiful butterflies. The lichen-encrusted insect may be a type of lacewing or caddisfly, they glue plant debris into a casing to camouflage and protect themselves from predators.
    Happy blogiversary next week, the year has flown right by, and what a year it was!

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    1. Hi Mike. Sorry for late reply, you slipped through the net! Those caterpillars are still in the same spot! Don’t know why as quite exposed. Look forward to them becoming butterflies. Take care. MJ

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