Wasp in a spider’s web

Claxton, Norfolk Her long aristocratic jaws and black oval eyes were immobilised beneath a pall of silk

In this slow-draining delta of colour that we name "autumn" I think the most beautiful thing I have seen this year is a holly hedge at Walcot Hall, Shropshire, entirely meshed with spider's webs. Spiders claim September like no other month, and in that morning light they were scattered over with dew.

But spare a thought for male spiders, since these days are also treacherous. In the nettle bed by the dyke I came across one hopeful male on the edge of an orb-web spun by a particularly grand garden cross spider. The latter had just trussed up her latest catch, a wasp, and was laying her forelegs over that still-living insect in readiness to dissolve it with her digestive juices.