Meandering

On Sunday after a very soggy Saturday, the clouds parted and I took the opportunity to take the kids for a walk before we all went daft!

 I intended on looking for nice Autumny things for R to collect, conkers, acorns and pine cones but the path I chose was a bit sparse.  Instead we walked along an old wall and found loads to keep her happy.

This Ivy was in full bloom and keeping the insects happy, after the warm spell, there are still loads around like this wee hoverfly.  I love the flower shape and the acid green gives a nice lift!

This culvert was in full spate like a mini waterfall with all the rain from the fields.  R spend a good while throwing sticks in, I hope it doesn't block it up!

I was showing R the Larch trees, their needles are beautifully soft when we notices some exciting insects.  Can you spot the ladybird?  We spotted one and then another.  In all we counted 22 in a fairly short piece of wall.  It was the most I had ever seen at once and R was becoming pretty good at spotting them.  KP was fast asleep in the buggy and couldn't care less ;-)

I was doing a bit of research afterwards to try and figure out whether it was the tree (larch) that had attracted them or something else.

 This one preferred the brambles.  I think they were getting together to hibernate.  Ladybirds like to get together into big groups and snuggle up for the winter (a great idea if you ask me) and I reckon that the old stone wall would give a nice dry hidey-hole for them.  I hope they sleep well and don't get munched by the wee mice we sometimes see round there.

 The brambles looked delicious but because of all the rain were really too squishy and watery to be tasty much to our disappointment.

This moss was the brightest green, the top one was covered in beautiful starry moss, the photo doesn't do it justice.

 We weren't the only ones out for a walk, this slug was huge

 Some flowers in my neighbours garden.  I have decided that next year I will have some geraniums in old terracotta pots.  They just make me think of holidays where houses are covered in them and the sun is always shining.

I hope you enjoyed our wee walk, hopefully the weather will hold and we can go into the woods next time.  More chocolate next time too.  The fudge was delicious and I can feel the recipes calling to me.  There is one for mango truffles that I'm just itching to try...

ttfn and thanks for reading ;-)