Summer butterflies, Autumn spiders

Lovely photos! I love to see spiders in their webs - I just wish they wouldn't come stampting acrossd my floor every evening!! I also get those huge slugs - as you say - "Yuk!"

Nariz, you took the very words form my keyboard - its really nice to see some photos of those fantastic webs. What a shame the comma flew away before you could snap it, Geranium gem - they are fantastic and not all that common. Tortoishells are in short supply here - we get mostly red admirals and spotted woods, and of course the small and large whites that devastate the cabbages and nasturtiums!
I think yours is a male small white. I do like insect photos - thank you!

Super blog, Gem.. :o)))
Especially lovely to see the butterflies.
You photographed them well.

Thoroughly enjoyed that GG - you have captured some smashing pics!
I enjoy taking pictures of the various insects and finding out what they are.
Those spiders and their webs are fascinating. I managed to capture a nest (?) of baby spiders hatching earlier in the year - it's on an old blog if you care to look.
There are some great websites out there to help you id
I find this one is quite good
http://www.uksafari.com/index.htm

Thanks for the comments : )

These were the lucky spiders who didn't get their webs destroyed by me not seeing them and walking into them! I've ended up with a face full of web on several occasions now :o

Nariz I'm hoping my indoor spiders are going to eat some of these endless mosquitoes I've had the last few weeks, those I really don't like!

Steragram I will have to look up a spotted wood, I don't know that one yet!

TT I hope the butterflies do better next year after this year's awful weather ...

Scottish, thanks for the website, I will have a look at that :o)

It's nice to know the names of our insect friends :o) I would have dificulty naming them ...
Spiders' webs are a work of art. I always appologise to them for destroying their efforts lol ...

I had to look them up on the internet Hywel! But now I know a few at least :)

The spotted woods like to be around unkempt edges and brambles, which is probably why we get more of them than anything else!

Nice to find somebody else who apologises to spiders for web breaking Hywel!

Are they the same as speckled woods? I typed it in as spotted but seem to have been redirected to speckled! I have a small 'wild patch' behind the hedge but perhaps not enough for them, I see they like woodland and I don't have any of those nearby (unfortunately!).

Old age again! Yes they are speckled and I don't know why I wrote spotted. They seem to be specially attracted to brambles and we have a biggish patch hanging over the fence at one point.
Pity the fruit is so small and squashy but you can't really be cross as they are wild ones and the roots are on the other side of the fence.We get the occasional gatekeeper butterfly too but not very often.

Fantastic photos! Loved them all except for the slugs, ugh, though they do look more interesting closer up, they are the one thing (oh, and worms!) that I hate about gardening. Don't mind the snails so much, as they are smaller and prettier. ;-)

We have lots of spiders here, and I too have walked into some webs as they are so hard to see. Love the bumble bee photos, we had a bumble bee nest in our wall this year, as the plumber left a hole where an old pipe for the bathroom used to be. They didn't cause us any problems, but as it was a wet Summer there weren't that many, but they are so interesting to watch, I love how they sway when they fly! Very impressed with your camera skills, and also your bravery in putting that coin on the floor right next to the giant slug! :-0

That slug had to be removed Mazzy, he wasn't going to be allowed to get in the greenhouse and munch all my plant-babies!! I have a pair of giant tweezers for that job ;)

Your bee nest sounds interesting, do you think you'll leave the hole to see if they nest there next year or does it need to be filled up?

Haha, for me to remove a slug with giant tweezers, the tweezers would have to be 10 ft long! ;-)

I think we will fill the bee next hole in to be honest, we did ring a bee expert and that's what he told us to do. They weren't much of a problem this year as we didn't spend much time sat out as the weather wasn't brilliant, but I imagine with a really good Summer they would start to become a nuisance, and be in much greater numbers, so I need to get someone round with a ladder to put some mortar in. I feel a bit mean for doing it, but my daughter just panics if a bee or wasp comes near her, so for a quiet life it's probably best to fill it in! ;-)