Sunday 11 October 2015

Marvel of my day



"Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant depart in peace," sang Eli and, without I hope being blasphemous, I have a milder version of the same sense of deep satisfaction.

For Lo! the moth I have been hoping for more than anything except one of the Clifden Nonpareils which have made a startlingly large number of appearances in these parts this autumn, flew in last night.


It is the ravishing, and ravishingly-named Merveille du Jour, one of the most inspired of the many lovely coinings of the literary and artistic coterie - including the famous clown Joey Grimaldi and many talented 18th century painters - who named our butterflies and moths. I'm glad they did, because the mighty Linnaeus gave the moth the unmemorable and possibly misleading name of Griposia aprilina.


I think that I can leave the pictures to tell the story other than to say that it was a near miss. The moth was outside the trap and you may be able to see from dimpled grass in the second photograph below how nearly I came to treading on it. Luckily, I have learned to give the lamp's surroundings a good inspection before turning to the eggboxes themselves.


Hope you can see the moth, a bit left of centre

I shall now go an have my shower, during which I will sing one of my favourite hymns, Penny being a hundred miles away on her Women's Walking Weekend. Here are the words:


Hushed was the evening hymn,
The temple courts were dark;
The lamp was burning dim
Before the sacred ark;
When suddenly a voice divine
Rang through the silence of the shrine.


The old man, meek and mild,
The priest of Israel, slept;
His watch the temple child,
The little Levite, kept;
And what from Eli’s sense was sealed
The Lord to Hannah’s son revealed.


O give me Samuel’s ear,
The open ear, O Lord,
Alive and quick to hear
Each whisper of Thy Word,
Like him to answer at Thy call,
And to obey Thee first of all.


O give me Samuel’s heart,
A lowly heart, that waits
Where in Thy house Thou art,
Or watches at Thy gates;
By day and night, a heart that still
Moves at the breathing of Thy will.


O give me Samuel’s mind,
A sweet unmurm’ring faith,
Obedient and resigned
To Thee in life and death,
That I may read with child like eyes
Truths that are hidden from the wise.


He's gone all holy this morning

There's a plinky-plonky version of the tune here if you'd like to rock along. Good last lines, eh? Another more secular moral to this morning's events may be the old proverb: 'Everything comes to him who waits." But I worry about this as a possible invitation to lethargy and prefer Cromwell's typically robust: "We must not wait for the iron to heat but must make it hot by striking."

Much to mull on. The rest of the catch tomorrow after P's joyous return.


2 comments:

Helen said...

as this is an old post, I wonder if you will receive this.
I heard of merveil du Jour on a Radio Norfolk programme with the astounding chris skinner, I am sure you would appreciate him, he shares your sense of awe and wonder. He manages High Ash Farm just S of Norwich as a nature friendly environment, and how. and speaks every Sunday on the radio.
So he introduces this moth and I look it up in my ancient Oxfor Insect book. Not there. Tinternet reveals your blog. Now I see the marvel of its tapestry.
I have never done moth trapping or bat listening or any of many things I would, and could, do if I had several other lives. So I do love to hear about others, and one thing I specially love is enthusiasm. You manage to infuse that into your post. I hope you are happy in Oxfordshire - goodness knows why you ever left Leeds. But we all end up living in places we didnt quite expect.
Thanks for educating and inspiring.

Martin Wainwright said...

Hi Helen and thanks so much for this. I must track down Chris Skinner snd have a listen. I must admit that I find it easy to be blown away by Nature even after 71 years of being a very small part of it. I loved butterflies as a boy but their numbers are limited in the UK whereas moths abound - and we keep finding new species or rediscovering supposedly extinct ones because so many people are taking an interest. I hope you get the time eventually, and meanwhile all warm wishes and sorry to be so late in coming to your comment. Martin