THE word “bugs”, is used loosely to describe any non-flying insect that invades our homes and gardens, but some species of bugs feed on crops and are a nuisance to both gardeners and farmers. The ones that I like to spot and photograph resemble tiny armoured tanks, no bigger than 16mm and live among shrubs and trees on hedgerows.

Now is the time to spot these tiny creatures and on a neighbouring garden hedge I found several species. The most numerous were green shieldbugs that seemed to be having a party or committee meeting, these are easiest to identify because of their colour. There were also numerous squash bugs living there that look like miniature brown metal war vehicles. I saw a couple of hawthorn shieldbugs and a pair of sloe bugs.

I think that when Ferdinand Porsche designed the first Volkswagen car, he based the shape on that of a bug so the car quickly became known as the Volkswagen Bug. However, that word didn’t suit most people so bug was changed to beetle, a much nicer word.

On a short (two-mile) walk around the parish I saw lots of green alkanet with their small bright five petalled blue flowers. The roots of this plant were a source of red dye for clothing, but it is uncertain where and when it came to this country. Some experts believe it arrived from France or Spain during the Middle Ages but other plant experts think that it is native to Cornwall and Devon.

There are also lots of lunaria or honesty plants out in bloom with their purple flowers. The name, lunaria, comes from its translucent flat seed pods that resemble the moon and for this reason bunches of flowering stems showing their silver ‘moons’ are popular in dried floral arrangements in the home.

I also found several white dead-nettle out in bloom. These plants bear a slight resemblance to stinging nettles until they come into flower, but their leaves lack the stinging hairs of the true nettle. Its common name of dead nettle refers to its inability to inflict pain or injury and it has a cousin, the red dead-nettle that has red flowers.

The advantage of walking on a very sunny day is that lizards will be sunbathing on the hedges. I was lucky enough to see seven that day. One of them had wrapped its body around some plant stems and remained quite still whilst I took its photograph. These cold-blooded animals, like slow worms and snakes, take advantage of the sun to warm their bodies up.

I spent a couple of hours in the garden picking up weeds that I had raked off some weeks ago, when I was joined by a male blackbird. I leaned on my rake and watched as he picked up small worms in his beak, shook them and dropped them again. He repeated this several times before keeping them in his beak and moving on to a fresh worm and repeating this performance. When his beak was holding eight or nine worms he flew off, presumably to his nest where there were young. After a few minutes he was back again for another pick up.