The Wrath of Grapes and the Slight Grumpiness of Invertebrates

This is sort of a composite post covering snaps on two topics taken recently.

I had hoped to have a link to the Battle Hymn of the Republic but all the good versions (eg Joan Baez) are pay per play and the freebies are either over-orchestrated saccharine (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) or basically embarrassing (The King as part of American Trilogy).

So here are some grapes.  You'd be wrathful if picked and stuck in a bowl (or a bowel).  The green/white ones are the Niagara variety with a foxy smell.

These are some Muscats we were given by our friend Ros.  Still on the vine.

Not the jungles of Burma or Sri Lanka but the scene under our bird netting.

Some black grapes still ripening.

Ditto a few whites.

OK on to the grumpy inverebrates.  I always find Huntsman spiders grumpy: I suspect they have a terrier gene somewhere that means they never back off!  This was a monster on our bedroom flyscreen.

Talking of monsters, check out the ovipositor on this icheumenon wasp!

Some weeks back I covered the willow aphids down by the Creek.  They are still there in vast proportions.

Not only does their honeydew attract bees and ladybirds ..

... but it is so evident on our drive that it makes stones stick to our tyres as we drive in and out!