I've got a thing!

This has just shot up.

It looks like it is a gladioli, but I can’t be sure until it flowers. I thought it might have been one of the irises, which have been skulking this year, but the flower spike is more Edna Everage than anything else. I planted a load of bulbs ages back, I mean years and years ago, but none of them showed up. Perhaps this one is finally making a bid for freedom.

Actually, I have more than one thing. The second photo is of a green shieldbug nymph, which has to be in it’s last instar because it is as big as an adult (almost). It was wandering around my white nettle collection, eyeing the ant closely.