Yes, it’s officially Mayday, but in fact it was a ‘Mayday’ call for help which I answered a few minutes ago.

My Other Half is a serious creepy-crawly-ophobe. Yes, he’s an arachnophobe, but it also spills over into a strong dislike for anything with more than four legs - except of course butterflies, moths, and other ‘pretty’ insects, like ladybirds. So when I answered the call (’What the hell is THAT?? Whatever it is, I DON’T LIKE IT!’) and rushed into the conservatory this morning, I didn’t really have much idea of what I would find except that it was most likely to be a spider or an insect of some kind.

And of course, it was. Following the direction of his horrified gaze, I found this small green insect strolling nonchalently across the white PVC threshold, minding its own business, but inadvertently causing a minor panic in the household.

Many of you will recognise it as a shield bug. A Green Shield Bug (palomena prasina) to be precise - common throughout England in back gardens and hedgerows. woodlands and field margins.

I thought it was rather pretty.

By the way, I snapped this little guy with my new compact digital camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3. I only got it yesterday, but so far I am very impressed. Hand-held macro photography is iffy at best, but the image stabiliser on this camera seems to work extremely well, and I was able to use natural light and get in close, and ended up with a fairly crisp, well-balanced picture. So that’s two thumbs up from me!