Saturday 9 April 2011

Salad days


Regular readers know my fondness for green moths, in the virtually complete absence of any blue ones in the UK. So I was pleased this morning to find among all the Quakers, Drabs, Hebrew Characters etc (and a couple of very fine Early Greys) this Red-green Carpet which the sunshine has tempted out of hibernation. I'm using two photos to show the difficulty of portraying moth colours accurately in photography, at least in my unskilled hands. This is the same moth, but above in shade and below in sunshine.


I have to admit that I also like the opalescent background colours almost as much and was sorry to crop some of them out. Amazing how lovely an eggbox can look through a plastic cowl mottled with condensation drops. The condensation, incidentally, was the result of a wonderfully warm day - real June/July temperatures in Leeds - followed by a much colder night. Now it is midday and boiling again. In the butterfly realm, I have seen Peacocks in abundance, a couple of Speckled Woods, two Commas an a blue, I think a Holly one. And all within 50 yards of the kitchen where Penny is making mouth-watering Watercress soup.

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