Hairy Shieldbug, Blackberries, Witches' Spit

My dog and I enjoyed the sunshine shooting macro today. The kneeling knee of my jeans split.. We didn't find anything particularly interesting. I got a solitary bee on fox and cubs, a green Myrid nymph with black spots on ragwort, a grasshopper looking scared because it thought it was stuck in a spider's web, a micro moth with pollen on its antennae, a minute hoverfly, crane flies and an ichneumon wasp.

I've decided to post this hairy shieldbug as I don't think I've posted one before. I have just read that they used to be called sloe shieldbugs. There was a survey in Surrey in which hairy shieldbugs were never found on blackthorn. No wonder the name was changed. :)

As for the blackberries, the season for picking them is over. Folklore has it that witches spit over them on Michaelmas, the 29th September.

(Just seen my favourite weevil, the acorn weevil, on the Oak Tree programme on BBC Four. <3 )