equipped to shoulder its way through life

...it was such a delight to wake up to bright sunshine streaming in through the window. It was not quite so delightful when, just as we were able to get out for our afternoon walk, the heavens opened. The bank of cloud that had been running along the edge of the coast all morning, decided to push inland a bit this afternoon. Consequently, we abandoned our attempt to enjoy a walk on the downs and headed back to our old faithful, Arne.

The area around one of the ponds has been proving very fruitful this week and it only took a few moments to locate this impressively armoured Spiked Shieldbug, Picromerus bidens on some bracken.

The Sika deer are in rut and the noise that the stags make when they call is one of the eeriest sounds you could ever expect to hear in the English countryside. When heard for the first time, you could easily find yourself dialling 999 to report hearing someone being attacked or murdered in the forest!

We are off to a concert performed by the Stanford Quartet this evening so commenting will be a bit delayed...