Summer's Lease

It's a surprise when I look up through the skylight and see house martins circling against a grey evening sky; it feels as if we are well into the autumn but these summer visitors are still with us. They are no longer showing an interest in their nests under the eaves of the house across the road.

The martins might as well linger as there is insect prey in abundance. A plump spider shimmies down from its hideout at the corner of the patio windows and dispatches the latest midge to blunder into its orb web.

A small tortoiseshell and an assortment of flies, including large drone flies, are attracted to the pink flowers of a fleshy-leaved ice plant, Sedum spectable, in a sunny patch on the border.

Earlier, when the sun was on the marigolds a painted lady visited them.