Take care, thief!

Another day with heavy rain forecast, so we decided not to do any fieldwork. The morning was cool and dull, and the dogs and I went for a walk round Southey Wood. The incessant rain has made the grassland on the rides tall and rank, produced ponds where they never existed before and made some of the smaller paths almost impenetrable. Light levels were so low that I could only take macro photographs using the flash.

Towards the end of the walk I spotted this soldier beetle on a flower, and then noticed the crab spider lying in wait. I watched to see what would happen, but I think the soldier beetle must have spotted the spider in time, because it moved away slightly, and then proceeded to eat the remains of a fly wrapped up in the spider's web. The spider may also have decided that it's potential prey was just too crunchy!

The forecast rain arrived in the afternoon, and was absolutely torrential, with thunder and lightning. All the gutters had waterfalls and the front garden was flooded for a while. Ben and I went to Sainsbury's after the worst was over, and emerged into dazzling warm sunshine, though half the sky still had deep pewter storm-clouds. When we got home we found that Alex and Chris had returned from their New Forest camping trip a day early - tired, grubby and happy.