It’s rare to see ladybirds, so I was pleased to see this one on the bathroom window frame this morning. However, having looked on the iNaturalist site, I can see there are many species and some of them are not so helpful. The Green Goddess site waxes lyrical about ladybirds until you scroll further down to the information on the Harlequin Ladybird and other pests. My visitor is possibly an Asian Lady Beetle, but it could be the Harlequin as they seem to have a variety of colours and markings. It had flown away before I had discovered it might not be such a welcome visitor after all. Like everything else, however, it will have to take its chances in my wild garden*.

*Like the little bird which rests on the fisherman’s boat in In the Old Man and the Sea.