even though they are carnivores
The weather is very warm here again in Sussex, and my day is mostly spent organising myself in such a way that I can function and stay calm while also endeavouring to be productive and not just dissolve into a hot heap and cry. I have a headache from sitting in front of a fan, and keep getting nosebleeds and itchy skin as I’m all dried up and scratchy, however much water I drink. Oh and mosquito bites – don’t we love those. It finally gets cool enough for me to sleep (rather than doze) at about 4am, which is an hour or so before the animals’ breakfast time so my sleep is somewhat compromised to say the least. I am aware these are very much first world problems but if it was bucketing with rain for days on end everyone would be complaining so I am just balancing out the conventional narrative.
Meanwhile, I am chasing people for birdwatching logbook invoices and orders, and getting ready for another run of titles with the printer. I’m practising graphic recording most days, varying my time between live work with podcasts and webinars, and trying to get my handwriting a little neater, as well as increase my confidence with drawing stuff as soon as it comes into my head. I’ve been using my A1 paper on the easel and using a large clutch pencil to draw with so I don’t waste marker ink as it’s a similar sized point and doesn’t smudge.
I have mentioned the podcast In Defense of Plants before, and an episode popped up on my feed about the relationships between dragonflies and plants. Given that these insects (and their damselfly relatives) are entirely carnivorous, how come plants are so integral to their lifecycle? I adore dragonflies, and appreciate their predilection for eating mozzies both as nymphs and adults, and the water plants I bought for my little pond in the front was in order to encourage these insects, as the frogs and newts are far more likely to inhabit the back garden ponds as they’re surrounded by vegetation. Dragonflies lay their eggs in plant matter, and the nymphs use weeds as cover as they’re ambush predators. They can spend a number of years in their larval stage before climbing up a vertical stem to emerge as an adult; it must be a vertical stem and if they climb onto land they can perish if they don’t find a stalk or something before they suffocate or get predated. This is why ponds with only algae, pondweed, waterlilies etc and no marginal plants can be problematic. I now have some native mare’s tail in my pond so hopefully if there are any dragonfly larvae they will be able to emerge and catch any of those pesky mosquitoes that the bats don’t manage to get.
Here is the map I made of the podcast:
