An ugly mass of black fly, as thick as velvet, has settled on the Cardoons. As a result, ladybirds are on overdrive, settling in for the long stay. As I watch them go about their business of feeding on these ebony interlopers, fighting, feuding, getting to know each other a little better, it feels like I'm viewing a scene from a Frontier town on a Saturday night. The ladybirds' backs glow bright and glossy, as if in moonlight, as they stagger around, from stem to flower petal, like a gang of gaily-attired drunks.
In places the black fly are so thick that all plant detail is lost; silvery Cardoon leaf and stem smothered by their powdery black bodies. I think of aging flock wallpaper, when the velvet print begins to fade and flake and see these patterns in the stricken plants before me.
I go to the shed and return with a paintbrush and a bottle of BUG-BE-GONE. For the next hour or so I brush off all the black fly I can, carefully avoiding the bright clusters of yellow eggs I hope will survive to become the new lady bird brawlers, out on the town...
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