Vanna Bartlett

Male Andrena, but you probably knew that!

Know what you mean!

I know there are a few churches that do that, not sure I'd fancy it though!

Nice! Not sure if I've really noticed these before. Must remedy that!

Good luck! Wish I could do some torch light church surveys, probably find all sorts literally crawling out of the woodwork.

Bristly millipedes out and about at Garvestone church today.

Lovely.

Watch out for your frog spawn! We very occasionally get Grey Heron in the garden but I have seen the lovely Blackbirds taking tadpoles, as do the Magpies...

Some lovely Argiope species to rival A. bruennichi which we get in Britain.

What handsome bunch!

Yes, it is rare to see them in any great number these days.

Ah, but these are not spiders, therefore extremely cute!

Dahlias are great for earwigs. We used to get Hop Garden Earwigs in them on our allotment. Sadly we lost the dahlias and the earwigs.

You'd be very welcome to come and join. Bit far for a day trip mind.

A transparent scale rule with centimetres divided into 10ths of millimetres and a row of black dots ranging from 0.1 to 1.2 millimetres diameter. Two small brown 'spots' laid on top of the rule are dead pseudoscorpions that are approx. 1 mm long.

They are very small, less than a couple of millimetres. It's possible that another larger species, Chelifer cancroides (the House Scorpion) could be living in old buildings too which would be really exciting to find in Norfolk. Here's a photo on a scale to show the size of Cheiridium museorum.

They are actually active at night so looking in dark corners with a torch could be good as you might spot one crawling on a wall. I've mostly been looking on dusty window ledges and checking cobwebs. Thatched churches are good as they live in thatch but I've now found them in non-thatched as well.

Downy mildew Peronospora lamii on leaves of Red Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum. Upperside of leaf.

Downy mildew Peronospora lamii on leaves of Red Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum. Underside of leaf.

Downy mildew Peronospora lamii on leaves of Red Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum. Upperside of leaf.

Downy mildew Peronospora lamii on leaves of Red Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum. Underside of leaf.

Downy mildew Peronospora lamii on leaves of Red Deadnettle, Lamium purpureum.

Seen at Sheringham on yesterday's walk.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

And the sharp-eyed will spot the pincers of a Common Earwig Forficula auricularia being rather bashful...

Looking good!

That's sad. I was only musing the other day that I know of so many people in Norfolk who are now enthusiastically looking at insects/invertebrates for the first time and logging their finds on iNaturalist and yet are not remotely interested in joining the local Naturalists' Society.

Looks like a scene from a well known M.R. James story...

A little baby harvestman on the underside of a pale whitish stone facing left. The harvestman is mottled shades of grey and brown with quite a rotund body and a pair of beady black eyes. This one may be a juvenile Odiellus spinosus.

A little baby harvestman on the underside of a pale stone, head uppermost. The harvestman's body is mottled shades of grey with a darker, central 'saddle' area on its back. There is the beginnings of a trident in the form of a single pointed tubercle on the edge of the carapace in front of the eyes. Really not sure what this one is - maybe an Odiellus spinosus.

A tiny baby harvestman facing left on the underside of a pale whitish piece of old loose render that has come off a wall. The harvestman is mottled shades of brown and grey and has a darker central 'saddle' area on its back. There are pale, smooth rings around the eyes and the beginnings of a trident. This one could well be a juvenile Paroligolophus agrestis.

Finding quite a few little baby harvestmen at the moment. Most are to small to identify to species at the moment, all looking rather cute though! #arachnids #harvestmen #invertebrates

A flint towered church on a grey day seen from the north. The churchyard is bounded by a low flint wall and there are bare trees in the left hand side. In front of the church is a low, circular walled structure that holds water (presumably originally drinking water for animals) which spills out into a low basin and then overflows either side.

A tiny, circular bodied reddish-brown Book Scorpion with little pincers caught in a cobweb on the white washed wall inside the church.

A Rosy Woodlouse head down on the underside of a stone. The woodlouse is peachy coloured with two pale yellow lines running down the centre of its back.

Decided it was too windy to cycle yesterday so got the train to Sheringham instead. Visited church at Upper Sheringham. Inside found a dead Cheiridium museorum (Book Scorpion), a new hectad record. Outside, Rosy Woodlouse (Androniscus dentiger) was a nice find under a stone. #invertebrates

Rhododendron Bud Blast, Seifertia azaleae.

Rhododendron Bud Blast, Seifertia azaleae.

Sheringham Park, yesterday, with @vannabartlett.bsky.social.

#Fungi #FungiFriends

The Sheringham mermaid. A late 15th Century carved bench end. "She holds a comb in her left hand, and I think a mirror in her right, but this is hard to see because a table has been wedged up against it. This is a fairly common image in late medieval church art, but she is a particularly striking example and she has become the stuff of popular legend as you would expect, generating a story that she sought refuge in the church from a storm at sea, although she'd have done mightily well to climb that hill from the beach. Unfortunately her damaged face has been casually recut to make her appear ugly." - http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/uppersheringham/uppersheringham.htm

A cat holding a rat in its mouth. A late 15th Century carved bench end.

Carved face on a late 15th Century carved bench end.

A late 15th Century carved bench end. "Other bench ends include a chrysom child wrapped in swaddling overlooked by its poor cowled mother, and I wondered if this might have marked a churching pew, in which mothers sat on their return after giving birth." - http://www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/uppersheringham/uppersheringham.htm

All Saints, Upper Sheringham

Visited on yesterday's walk with @vannabartlett.bsky.social.

Late 15th Century carved bench ends, including the famous Sheringham mermaid.

www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/uppershering...

#Norfolk #Churches

Firebugs on bramble leaf

Firebugs on the ground

A cluster of Firebugs

Firebugs (Pyrrhocoris apterus) in Earlham Cemetery, #Norwich. Thanks to @vannabartlett.bsky.social for where to check & @ians4ad.bsky.social for a great discovery last year! #bugsky

Anti-Trans Health Secretary & Labour leadership hopeful Wes Streeting claims his segregation of trans people in the NHS are to “protect (cis) women”.

Yet he brought Palantir into the NHS, something that its CEO has now admitted will specifically harm cis women.

Streeting and Palantir must go.

KC quits regulator to fight jury trial reform Flora Page KC accuses government of committing an 'act of tyranny' through the Courts and Tribunals Bill.

A KC who represented victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal in the public inquiry has quit her post on the Legal Services Board to fight justice secretary David Lammy's plans to restrict the right to a jury trial

www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/kc-quit...

I have lots of photos like that...

As someone who has always cared about the natural world and environment and has consistently voted for the Green Party, I now find myself branded as a leftwing extemist. I haven't done anything illeagal. Whoever designates in law that which is extreme may well have views counter to my own. Tricky.