On 15 May, less than 10 days ago, it was still cold and, in the afternoon we had a fierce shower of hail that whitened the grass.
This week it has turned very warm with temperatures between 25 and 30 Celsius at their highest.
Another flower has appeared, the tiny field speedwell, Veronica arvensis.
A small leaf mine has started to develop in a hogweed leaf. I think it is either Phytomyza spondylii or P. pastinacae (Diptera: Agromyzidae) that can only be separated via the adult male genitalia.
The dandelion that flowered earlier fully developed its seeds yesterday but the wind must have caught the 'clock' so that by the time a arrived at 9.30 this morning the little parachutes had already scattered into the grass.
Although the weather is still uncertain and often cold, the vegetation in the Rectangle is now rising rapidly and creating a shadowy green understorey of the kind preferred by insects and other invertebrates. The hogweed looks like becoming dominant.
Yesterday I found a solitary bee (yet to be identified) and a spring cranefly, Tipula vernalis, resting comfortably in the grass.
In the rare intervals of sunshine in the last few weeks, visits to the Rectangle have proved quite rewarding. On one occasion I found the lacebug Physatocheila dumetorum, seemingly the first East Sussex record for over 100 years. Among the plants there are several small stands of Atrichum undulatum, a moss with something of the Carboniferous era about it.
The first grass, annual meadow grass, Poa annua, has reached anthesis.
By the lip of the pitfall trap was one ant woodlouse, Platyarthrus hoffmannseggi. This very small, blind creature spends all its life in or near ants' nests, where it probably lives as a scavenger. It is the first time I have found it in our garden.
Already an interesting dimension of this project is beginning to emerge: I am finding many things that I have never seen in the Square Metre project perhaps only 50 metres away and which I have been scrutinising regularly for nearly nine years.
