Showers

Yesterday afternoon, Malcolm and I had a short walk around the lakes with one eye on the clouds. Typically, as we got within a few steps of our front door, the heavens opened and we got soaked in no time. Today, it was a walk in the other direction, around the old theme park lake, but still with one eye on the clouds.  As in the past few days, signs of Autumn are everywhere, not least of which were these colourful fruits... Rose Hips.  Can you spot the Common Green Shield Bug nymph (Palomena prasina) in the picture?  I didn't know it was there until I downloaded the photos from my camera.

Our garden is also a scene of the impending cooler days and as always, at this time of year, you can't step out of the door without getting spiders' webs all over your face. Spider silk is well known for being very strong. In fact, it is about as strong as high-grade steel. It is also very light-weight and 'stretchy', able to stretch by about 140% its length. It can also keep its properties of strength and 'stretchiness' down to temperatures of below −40°C.
This particular web belonged to a Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) which seems to have claimed our grape vine as its own. The web was rather beautiful as it caught the late evening sun.