OK, so where's the nest?

 I have known for what seems like ever that wasps make nests of 'paper' from chewed up wood.  Doesn't mean that much until you see it happening. Back in Surrey, one very quiet sunny afternoon, I saw a wasp on a plank of wood, and heard a miniscule scratchy sound. Looking at the wood, I saw stripy patches. Then I figured out what I had seen. The wasp was chewing the plank to make paper. Observe the stripy bits on our front garden gate. I know what did that!

  

Close up.

 So now you have a rough idea of how wide a wasp's jaw is. I am assuming that the little beasties don't take harm from whatever chemical content there is in the paint they are stripping off with the wood.

The Gladioli have been nice, but not very prolific. They are pretty much over now, but we have started getting flowers on some that we thought were not going to. Gardener thinks they are Afghan Gladis. I don't know but I like them.
 

Why I don't wear yellow.

 Apart from the fact that the colour reflects on my skin and makes me look jaundiced, there is the little matter of pollen beetles, which flock to it.
Many years ago, as a summer holiday amusement, I bought some very cheap T-shirts, and some dyes for the children to have fun. I let them choose their colours, and didn't realise what I was letting the one who chose yellow in for! I don't think he ever wore it out of doors - the pollen beetles just piled in until it looked like it had a printed design!

 We have a greenhouse staging tray set up as a bird-bath/watering hole, and I found a small dragonfly lying upside down in the water.I picked it out and put it on the stone perch, and saw that it was trying to wipe its eyes. Then it fell back in the water, so this time I picked it up and gently separated its wings, since the surface tension of the water was sticking them together.

This time I settled it onto a sprig of mint, and it was there for quite a while, and when it was gone from the perch, I looked below, and found no sign of it - so maybe it lived.  I hope so.

The following day, I was out on the other side of the house, talking to our neighbour, and a dragonfly of the same species came flying at me and settled on my blouse - the same one I had been wearing when I did the rescue bit. I very much doubt that it would have been the same one, but the soppy/anthropomorphic bit of me thinks "Maybe"

 I love Scabious seed heads even better than the flowers; they are so perfectly formed.

The last bit of nature news has no photo - OH found an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar today. This was the green form, which took us a bit of a while to sort out, since our book doesn't picture it, but only mentions it in passing.