One of the things I love best about this time of year is the opportunity for new walks. The fields are being harvested, one by one, once the crop has been cleared away the coast is clear for walking around the edges, or across the middle - whatever. The dogs and I had an enjoyable late afternoon walk around a new field yesterday. The hedgerows are beginning to look very fruitful and abundant.
One the way I saw a couple of things I haven't seen for a long time, both the product of tiny gall wasps. On a wild rose there were one or two Robin's Pincushions, which are feathery looking rose-tinted galls, created by the larvae of a tiny gall wasp, Diplolepis rosea.
Further along, growing on an oak in the hedgerow, I found lots of oak apples. I have rarely seen them since I was a little girl. I knew then that they had bugs inside, I now know they have been created by the oak apple gall wasp, Biorhiza pallida. There is an Oak Apple Day, or Restoration Day, observed annually on 29 May in certain parts of the country, to commemorate the restoration of the English monarchy in May 1660.
Our new walk looks south to the Lammermuir Hills. We will go again, and next time try and include the field across the lane.
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