Magpies and ladybirds

19 May 2025  (Monday)

A usual Monday, with work work in the morning and ordering from one of the suppliers of For Earth’s Sake to get the delivery tomorrow, plan an order from a second supplier for delivery on Wednesday, and a third one for delivery on Friday, plus bread orders to do, and organic fruit and veg, and messaging to out local shopping hubs to say what we’ll have this week.

I grabbed two hours at the plot in the afternoon, checking on our broad beans which seem to still be well saturated with blackfly, a moisture sucking aphid that means that the beans will likely develop poorly.  I had been hoping that the many ladybirds that had arrived would feed and breed, and that their larvae would voraciously munch on the aphids… BUT, I also noticed magpies in the broad bean bed a few times, and I think they are feasting on the ladybirds…

I spoke to a fellow plotter about this, and he said he had never heard of magpies eating ladybirds, especially as ladybirds are foul tasting for this very reason.  He suggested I contact the British Trust of Ornithology with my findings - which are basically that I had a plethora of ladybirds one day, and the following day having seen magpies feasting in the broad bean bean… I spotted most of the ladybirds had disappeared.  I decided to drop an email to the BTO, and we will see what happens.

I grabbed another block of smoked tofu from the freezer early in the day as I fancied a Smoked Tofu & Red Bean burger for supper, with our own lettuce, and some radish, cucumber and non-homemade oven chips (they were a free item at Lidl!).  We had some leftover cooked green lentils from a pasta sauce Richard made a few nights ago, so I used those in addition to the drained red kidney beans, adjusting seasoning and adding just a little bit of extra gram flour.

They were delish!  If you want to watch Richard making them than have a watch of the YouTube upload!

It was a late supper as I got caught speaking to a lodger at the neighbour where I’m feeding and injecting her cat, so after supper just a few episodes of As Time Goes By, one of Benidorm, and then to bed and a read of my book - It’s a Peter James Roy Grace one, Picture You Dead - when I read this I try not to think of John Simm…


Weather:   Chilly and grey to start, warming up with some sun in the afternoon.

Breakfast:  Bran Sticks, yogurt, sultanas and banana
Lunch:  Cottage Cheese, crackers, cucumber, radish, and beetroot
Supper:  Smoked Tofu & Red Kidney Bean Burger, lettuce, cucumber, radish and Lidl French Fries