Ladybirds seem to have been in short supply this year, so I was pleased to find this one nestling in my sage bush. Like bees, we absolutely need ladybirds. They are our natural pest controllers, preying on aphids and scale insects that can otherwise cause massive damage to food crops. As I was taking this photo, I was also delighted to scare off the harvestman spider that was creeping up on the ladybird. If you look in the bottom right corner above the copyright notice, you can just see the spider’s legs. Yikes!
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And here’s more evidence of spider activity: ambush exposed by raindrops in a garden pot.
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Now for one of my favourite plants in the garden. The flowers of this later flowering phlox remind me of jasmine and are half the size of the usual cottage garden varieties. It has just the faintest subtle scent, and doesn’t mind shade.
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Heuchera is another wonderful plant, and especially for ground cover. It comes in several hundred variations, and although understated on the floral front, it more than makes up for this with colour-bursting leaves that last all spring and summer. Also I see there’s spider lurking top left. I think it’s another harvestman. The bright green leaves amongst the heuchera are self-sown aquilegia seedlings. More granny’s bonnets to look forward to next year then. You never know what colour the flowers are going to be either – mauve, purple, pink, red, white. It’s one of the best things about plants that do their own gardening.
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The tiny fruit on our Japanese crab apple are just beginning to take on their autumn colour. Soon they will be a deep russet red. I don’t think snails eat apples. At least I’m giving this one the benefit of the doubt; it’s probably just been sheltering from the rain.
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And now for a flashback-fastforward: the crab apple tree in April – spring past, spring to come…
Tish Farrell 
Amazing pictures ! I love the fact that we can see the water bubbles so clearly on each of them, and the details on the very first green leaf are so deep and poignant… and of course the ladybug which appears so much smaller compared to the leaf, gives a good sense of dimension. Thanks for sharing.
Glad you liked this Dr. Y. The water droplets are magical aren’t they.
Yes indeed, they are magical!
Very nice!
Thanks, Andy.
Nice clicks, especially the fourth one.
Enjoyed every little bit of these images…!
And learnt a lot from your notes…
That’s very nice to know that you learned things too 🙂
Great shots. I liked the water on the leaves one best. Such a simple thing, but amazing when captured on camera.
Cheers, GC.
I had to squint to see the spider.
Bit early for our Ladybirds. A few more weeks before they arrive.
I too learn from your blogs. Glad you saved the ladybird – have only seen a single one this entire summer. And it’s still raining here 😦
The OH said you’d had some heavy storms your way, you have captured some delightful raindrops, especially on the heuchera which looks like my Marmalade one. They are very giving plants. I haven’t seen any ladybirds this year, what is that all about? Glad you saved it from the spider.
Yes we had a whopping downpour on Saturday, which fortunately didn’t last too long. It was the sort of rainfall that can flood the town.
We’ve got them all up here! They obviously like northerners 🙂
And did it? He said it was quite a storm over Ludlow.
Not heard that it flooded anyone as yet. Hope not.
It’s been wet down here, but no heavy storms, so far!
Amazing captures Tish
Thank you, Noel.
Great photos ~ its been a great year for apples, well all fruits here in the UK. It’s true I haven’t seen many ladybirds but my we’ve got more than our fair share of spiders! Maybe there’s a connection!
Yes, we’re overrun with spiders in the house. It’s quite creepy. Whatever space you put your hand into – even inside my big salt pot, there seems to be a web. They’d better not be eating ladybird though 🙂
No need to worry, Tish! They’ve come north. I’ll pack their suitcases and send them back. 🙂 Don’t need any spiders in exchange though. Lovely heuchera! We have those too. 🙂
The shot of the ladybug is a delight.
Thank you, Sally 🙂
These are all beauties, so glad the ladybird survived the spider!
A lovely celebration of rain Tish, and such noticing photos with plenty of wildlife. Each photo is rich in colour and beautifully composed. How do you persuade the creatures, especially the ladybird, to place themselves just so? I’m glad you explained the flowerpot, and I like the “spring past, spring to come” comment. I’m not even jealous of rain – we’ve had our own and the creek opened to the sea about 8 o’clock last night.
Oh I like that image of the creek opening to the sea. Here, we had so much rain in the night, it seemed we might soon be floating. The garden is now looking very shot at.
Beautiful pictures. Clear, sharp, and I could almost feel those cool water drops.
I do love a good water drop photo, Tish, and you have more than one. We have bugs who look like ladybugs but aren’t, so I’m never sure when I spot what I think is a ladybug, whether it is or not. 🙂
janet
Love how those spiders are waving their legs at you and so pleased the ladybird was saved. Down south in Sydney (1000 km from here) they are having torrential rain and flooding. So far it hasn’t reached us and we need rain but not floods.
Yes rain but not floods – definitely waving not drowning. Weather patterns seem to more extreme though, don’t they.
They certainly do. The media gave us the expected weather for our summer. They certainly hedged their bets as the said it looked like a stormy wet season, but it could also be drought!!!!
Your lovely photos are some of my favorites from this week’s photo challenge. Simply beautiful!
Lovely comment. Thank you for calling by my garden 🙂
I just realised I have not seen any ladybirds here at all!That is unusual,perhaps my mind was not right
I think they are definitely absent from the garden, Katherine. I think I’ve seen one at the allotments.
Nice to see them written as ladybird and not the American ladybug. To be honest, I haven’t seen one down here in a long time.
It’s worrying if they are in short supply.
Might be just me, not spending much time in the garden.
What marvelous pictures!
Thank you so much, Shimon 🙂