I looked out of the kitchen windows and saw a wonderful sight. Two young Chaffinches clinging to the rusty orange fading Garlic Mustard plants that are no more than 6 feet from where I stood. It had been raining for several days so nature came to me without the need for my rain gear. They were swaying back and forth feeding on the long seed pods. I watched them fly over to the small pear tree, hop to the ground for a peck about and then make a quick departure. I was so pleased that I hadn’t had a desire to cut down the tired looking plants already. It makes me want to try the seeds myself. I have had the pleasure of noticing a few homestead successes over the past couple of days, despite quite a wet week. When visiting the chickens, I figured it might be time to have a look at the wild parsnips again to check for red soldier beetles. Goodness me, the three clumps now exceed my height and were absolutely teeming with beetle activity. Red critters galore! Once my eyes tuned into them, I started seeing them all over. I noticed a couple in the vegetable garden as well which is a great sign. What I don’t know, however, is if their proliferation is definitely down to the wild parsnips being allowed to stay or if it’s something else. Whatever the reason, I’m glad to see them and do not have much green or black fly to worry about. On that note, I don’t know if it’s just luck or what but I have seen several seven spot ladybirds and no harlequins. I had so many harlequin larvae on the nettles recently I thought they would easily dominate over any others. This delightful report may change if there is some sort of mass hatching of a new battalion of harlequins, of course. Another lovely discovery came in the form of tiny clusters and single perfectly placed butterfly eggs on my salad leaves. There were three different egg colours and types on the leaves and another light green cluster on the underside of a nearby marigold leaf. I called for the children to come share my excitement and they were thrilled. Just this week we drew and talked about the life cycle of butterflies and they were fascinated. A few days before, they had found a huge mullein moth caterpillar on a buddleia bush that sparked their interest. They also loved and were slightly scared of the peacock butterfly caterpillars we had on the nettles. To find butterfly eggs was the icing on the cake. Needless to say, we won’t be eating the salad until we can share it with the caterpillars. This afternoon saw the end of the latest rainy spell and we were treated to a blazing sunset to end the day. I plan to harvest more chamomile flowers in the morning, once the dew has lifted from this wild land. A long awaited sunny day is likely to reveal a few more unexpected pleasures. Our eyes will be open.