Recently I have noticed the following naturey things.

• Whereas a few weeks ago there were loads of Ladybird larvae crawling around my rose bush, now many of them have turned to pupae. The picture above is an example, out of which will crawl the fully formed Ladybird. If you're lucky you can find a plant covered in every stage of the Ladybird lifecycle all at once.
• Around dusk this evening the air around the silver birch tree in the garden was swarming with large beasties. I found one on the ground briefly (it might have been emerging from the soil) and it looked like a chafer beetle. I'm amazed that any creature can move through the hard-baked soil at the moment! From a distance you might assume they were large bumble bees, but there's something distinctive about flying beetles – a certain heaviness that is apparent even from a distance. If you've ever seen Stag beetles flying around the hedgerows (I did just once) that's a real treat – they're huge, clumsy and noisy!
• The grass has stopped growing due to the lack of rain, which is saving me from mowing the lawn, but it's providing an opportunity for other plants to spring up from amidst the sward.