Worms

It is my sincere hope that there are no worms inside my gastro-enteric system from the lovely fresh blackberries.

This morning (after industriously cycling to work), I found a tiny worm on my sweater at about 10.30. My first thought was that it came from the banana I had just had as a snack, which made the tummy rather turn on its side and the thought pass through my head never to eat another banana. Sickness was avoided by pure determination of will, and the fact that spreadsheets make one's brain go really quite blank.

Then this afternoon, after snacking on a few more blackberries, there was another little worm inching (or centimetre-ing) his tiny way across my desk. Have felt slightly queasy since. I don't think there were blackberry worms in Louisiana. Or maybe my constitution was just a little stronger due to being heathen wood spirit who didn't care about frivolous things like little ol' worms :)

If anyone knows of a way in which to rid berries of creeping invaders, it would be most appreciated, as I very much enjoyed my mango, yogurt, blackberries and country crisp cereal last night... Google has really fallen down on the job on this and makes no helpful suggestions other than 'How to get rid of Raccoons' and an article about berries being used in Russia to rid the body of parasites.

And then there is this helpful item.

Boo on bugs!
Well, bugs in one's food.

Here are some lovely bugs, however, that my newly-found fascination with macro function enabled me to capture:

Firstly, a fuzzy bee on a thistle.

Then a dragonfly from the bank of the River Wensum. I was quite disappointed not to get him with his wings out, but I really couldn't just lay there in the mud and nettles.

Then, a bee on a yarrow (I think) flower. His little wings are so pretty, although had the sun gone ever so slightly behind the cloud instead of all the way, it might have shown up better.

Lastly, these are thistles that grow in front of Norwich City Hall. They are about 5 times the size of normal thistles and are just gorgeous. This was taken at dusk, so the light isn't so good. The plants are about 5 feet tall and each bud is about the size of my fist!