Common

Phalangium opilio, according to Wikipedia, is the most widespread harvestman in the world, but this is the first specimen I've ever photographed. It's native to Europe and Asia, but has been introduced (either deliberately or through stowing away in cargo) to North America, New Zealand, and North Africa. It has been recorded in the UK since the mid-C19th, and can be found in almost any warm, open environment: this male was basking on a daisy in a Cardiff park this afternoon. It's carnivorous, feeding on soft-bodied insects and larvae, but has also been found scavenging on vertebrate corpses, and though mainly nocturnal it will also hunt during the day. Adults are mainly found between May and September, but can persist into December, laying their eggs in the autumn to hatch the following spring.

I found my subject while Baby B was napping in the pram after lunch. The Boy Wonder was on fine form today - as well as being active and busy, and playing entertaining games and tricks, he was charmingly chatty. Among several new words, the stand-outs were "cake" (getting the important things named early, you see), "baby" - which is beautifully pronounced as "baybee" - and "too-too", which is the noise made by a trumpet. One of his books contains a photo of a toy trumpet, and this was the first time I've ever seen him really want something from a picture in a book. After he'd scrabbled at the photo, checked the back of the page to see if it could be extracted from that side, and expressed frustration that, no matter what he did, the trumpet stayed resolutely stuck in the page, I (foolishly) said that I would try to get him a trumpet. He immediately jumped up from my lap, marched to the door, and pointed outside to indicate that he wanted me to do this now. Luckily distraction arrived in the form of his father, coming to take over the evening shift after finishing work, but you won't be surprised to hear that R and I have spent part of this evening sourcing a toy trumpet.

"Never promise what you can't deliver!" I regularly tell TV detectives, when they assure a victim that they will definitely catch the criminal. It's advice I'd better learn to take myself.