Pentatoma Rufipes

Quietly enjoying a pleasant evening on our sun terrace in front of the Wendy Hut and couldn't help noticing this fearsome looking huge beetley thing top of the railings.  Neither of us had seen the likes of it before - but in all likelihood you have?

Whilst I took a photograph of it Pat scurried in to get her computer to look it up.  Turned out to be a COMMON forest or garden bug pentatoma rufipes.  (Incidentally, haven't iphone cameras come on a long way?)

Here's more detail:

Appearance

The forest bug is a large shieldbug with red legs, brown body and an orange, yellow or cream-coloured tip at the bottom of the 'shield'. Its 'shoulders' are slightly hooked and the fringe of the abdomen patterned with dark and pale squares.

Size

10-15mm in length.

Where to find it

Common and widespread across the UK in woodland, gardens and orchards. Look for adults from July.

What it feeds on

Sucks the sap of deciduous trees such as hazel, alder and oak. Also feeds on fruits and sometimes predates caterpillars and other insects.

New Aerial View

 Just a screen-grab from a Facebook Posting but this is a new angle on the water tower which does rather show our cheekily prominent location  in the middle of the picture and of the town of Settle:

Flourishing Flowerpots

 Between 200 and 300 flowerpot creatures are around Settle this year and thanks to media publicity people are rolling up in droves too to  photograph them -  ours included.  Earlier posts showed the installation and position of our monster but this one, taken and posted by a visitor, shows the tower rather nicely.

Record High Temperature

 

Inside the tower AND inside the heavily insulated new extension it is comfortably cool.

DCC Open Weekend Jollifications

 At what seems likely to turn out to be the UKs hottest spell ever our immediate neighbours DCC Concepts Ltd held  a spectacular open weekend,    Their corporate HQs sparkled, the sun shone and people flocked to it.

The newly repainted and overhauled Geest truck had an outing or three.  Here she is with a valuable and grumpy cargo of station shop stalwart Howard Butterworth (left), West Coast locomotive fireman Derek Soames (centre) and me driving - sort of.

All told a hugely enjoyable weekend of brilliant cooperation between neighbours, DCC, Settle railway station, the signal box and water tower.

Good Evening

Some lovely midsummer evenings of late.  1915 hrs. last evening and just right to catch the shadow of the water crane on the coal truck.

 

Brothers

 Came across this lovely picture from a few years ago.  It shows mum Lorna with our grandsons James (left) and younger brother Ben (middle).  Both boys are now taller than their mother.  The look on young Ben's face is an absolute picture.

Apologies if it has appeared on this Blog before.   Apologies also to Ben who is still in the process of realising that parents, older brothers and grandparents (especially) can be deeply embarrassing at times and often need to be forgiven.