But, now at the end of August, our heather was superb. A vista of mauve to a hot sunny backdrop of the Downs; the smell of honey, and with bees and insects of all sorts taking advantage of the nectar banquet. In their turn, were the many dragonflies zooming in to feast on the other insects.

So I just needed to sit in the heather to watch events. It was surprising what one could see below the rough stems of the plants. Spiders, flies , the odd moth and an occasional beetle.

There was a small spider checking to see what was in its web - a large, leggy harvest spider was wandering about following a fly. It stopped at the small spider's web. Perhaps there is an agreement among the spider fraternity not to blunder into a mate's web? Anyway, the fly got away. This was just a little snapshot of wild life in the vicinity of my knees when I should have been working elsewhere!

There is a seat near the footpath where I sometimes pause to look at the view of the Downs. There are often little round holes in the worn ground which are the homes of potter or mason wasps. Not recently, but I expect that the disgusting wet summer flooded them out.

Yes, it is interesting what one can find when you get down to ground level, even in the garden. Unless of course, you hate creepy-crawlies.

In that case you will never know what you could have enjoyed!

John Hall © 2007