Empusa pennata

This morning was medlar-jelly-making morning. It seemed to go quite well, but the jelly doesn't seem to be setting, so it may need to be boiled up again - with added pectin.

Today was to be apple day... I removed the last remaining apples from the trees, then started the winter pruning and clearing the ground around the trunks, only to be distracted by discovering an insect I'd never seen before. Photographing and then identifying it took so long that I will have to complete the winter treatment of the apple trees tomorrow. Anyway, the insect was finally identified - using the internet - as one of the larval forms of Empusa pennata, a type of praying mantis - apparently known in English as a conehead mantis.