Tuesday 21 July 2009

Coming to call

This post is going to be a little like the List of Visitors which the local paper published in Harrogate, in the days when the town's spa attracted members of the Upper Ten. The heights of ecstasy were reached when three queens stayed overnight; and I remember doing a touching story about a family who still had a christening spoon given to their grandfather by Tsarina Alexandra, the one shot at Ekaterinburg, when she stayed 'anonymously' with his parents who ran a Harrogate boarding house. No such magnificence last night in my moth trap, but some pleasant visitors all the same. They are, in order from the top: a Shaded Broad-bar; a couple of Scalloped Oaks which look like nuns hastening to the aid of a lost soul (the unidentifiable dark moth in the corner of the eggbox); a Dun-bar (I think) with a Heart-and-Darty-type friend; I shall consult the experts on these, dim as I am; plus a wasp. And, finally, a Burnished Brass with its brass nicely burnished. Sorry about the hesitancies. I wouldn't have been good at telling which queen was which in Harogate, either.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember doing a job for the King of Greece once where a tip was expected at the end. He held out his hand and I held mine to take the money but instead he just shook my hand.

I thought; funny he considers his handshake better than money - and soon realised though that it was. Shaking a kings hand is much better than the price of a couple pints.

But I was still wrong again. A tip was made for me as his bill was settled, a nice one. So I got all three, money, King's handshake, and to see a quality of behavior that was high.

It is 6:30 and I have been watching the sun rise, no lurid red sky which we do get regularly http://tinyurl.com/n7bsum
(my porch at low tide) and it is time to fetch the weasel dog.

MartinWainwright said...

Hi there! I wonder if that was King Constantine. He used to be in the news when I was a student, standing up against those Army colonels who took over the home of democracy briefly and unpleasantly. I just looked up in my moth book to see if there were any Queen or King Moths, or maybe a Princess. But no. The nearest we've got is the Emperor Moth, which is indeed a grand insect. In the North York Moors you can see them flying over the heather which turns the landscape purple for miles in August. All best M.

Anonymous said...

Yes it was King Constintine, and he was invited to not return to Greece, but still a crowned King.

Martin I have enjoyed your site; your dedication to moths is inspiring. I do hope one day to find a site where general nature and especially the ethics of nature can be discussed.

I have been on GUT for years and environment means firstly Co2, next reporting a wood pigeon and long tailed tit at the feeder, then how to be green through a solar water heater.

Your blog here is inspiring - but a bit too specialized. So here is a photo good by - http://tinyurl.com/q8eouj

Keep up the dedicated work, and I am sure the queries of what it all means.

dorry

MartinWainwright said...

Hail and Farewell Dorry! Thanks so much for all your interesting comments and fab pics - and for letting me use the ones of the humming birds. If you have bobbed in again, how do I access GUT? When I Googled it, I just got loads of stuff about intestinal medicine, for which I am not ready (yet...) Warmest wishes, M