An occasional journal
wildlife
Critter of the Day: Holly Blue
Aug 13th 2017
Celastrina argiolus on a hedge.
Admin1 is reading A Deadly Thaw by Sarah Ward, which was … preposterous. Admin2 is reading Eleven Days by Stav Sherez.
We scored 8 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Critter of the Day: Lily Beetle
Aug 5th 2017
Found these handsome insects on the remains of an ugly plant which they had reduced to sticks. Whole lot went into bin. No loss. Even the bloke who gave it to us said the flowers looked like the face of the devil.
Yesterday was our sunniest August day ever: >11kWh. Today was the second sunniest.
We are watching Ripper Street.
Critter of the Day: Comma
Jul 30th 2017
Polygonia c-album sitting on a bush.
Admin1 is reading Eleven Days by Stav Sherez. Admin2 is reading The Silent Girl by Hjorth and Rosenfeldt. Whereof we cannot speak… We scored 9 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Flies
Jul 24th 2017
Admin1 is reading The Silent Girl by Hjorth & Rosenfeldt. Admin2 is reading A Short Ride on a Fast Machine by Magnus McGrandle, which whizzed along at great speed.
You Are My Honey Honeysuckle, I Am the…er…Hoverfly
Jul 22nd 2017
Hoverflies seem to love honeysuckles. Bees, meh!
Admin1 is reading The Man Who Wasn’t There by Hjorth and Rosenfeldt. Admin2 is reading The White Road by Sarah Lotz; the mountaineering bits were quite evocative but the notion of earning millions of pounds from flogging a website was sort of unbelieveable. And we scored 10 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Making a Beeline
Jul 20th 2017
Two bees queueing in a hollyhock.
Admin1 is reading The Intrusions by Stav Sherez, and agrees with Admin2′s opinion (somewhat implausible) but readable enough to invest time in other books in the series. SS does tend to pile on the misery for his detectives, though.
Admin2 is reading Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner.
Sweet Honey Bee
Jul 1st 2017
A sunny(ish) day at last. June’s solar panels just managed to top last June’s by a few hundred watts.
Admin2 is reading The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, which is summed up by the title and reasonably entertaining.
We Are Snailing
Jun 5th 2017
We had more rain today than in the whole of April, and it brought out all the molluscs, including this splendid red snail; another election portent.
Admin1 is reading I’m Travelling Alone by Samuel Bjork, which had a preposterous plot, a pointlessly suicidal detective and a hell of a lot of winking. Admin2 is reading Dragon’s Green by Scarlett Thomas, an enchanting book in a luminous jacket.
Critter of the Day: Red Admiral
Jun 4th 2017
Vanessa Atalanta, earlier in the year than we have spotted one previously, a change from the whites and speckled woods which are all we have seen earlier, and another red portent for the election.
We scored 7 on the Guardian Weekend quiz.
Buzzfeed
May 31st 2017
A bee arriving on thyme.
Admin1 is reading Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre. Admin2 is reading Memo Random by Anders de la Motte; a forgettable book with an amnesiac protagonist.
Critter of the Day: Speckled Wood
Apr 24th 2017
Pararge aegeria on a hazel tree.
Admin1 is reading Hide and Seek by MJ Arlidge. Admin2 is reading Want You Gone by Chris Brookmyre.
Critter of the Day: C for Caterpillar
Apr 14th 2017
Good Friday, and our first shower this April.
Admin1 is reading Out of Bounds by Val McDermid (plotting-by-numbers, but leavened by some interesting and capable women and a fine selection of useless men). Admin2 is reading Luna: Wolf Moon by Ian McDonald, which is, as the jacket copy says, Game of Moons, with much plotting and mayhem.
Simply the Nest
Apr 9th 2017
Admin1 uncovered this bird’s nest while trimming an overgrown viburnum bush.
Admin1 is reading Malice by Keigo Higashino. Admin2 is reading A Midsummer’s Equation, also by Keigo Higashino; an engrossing murder mystery solved by physics.
Tit among the Plum Blossoms
Apr 4th 2017
Admin1 is reading The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin. Admin 2 is reading 334 by Thomas M Disch: the 1984 of the 2020s.
Spring Song
Mar 24th 2017
Shouting from the treetops that the sun is shining again and the solar panels have collected 8 kWh at the earliest date we have recorded. Admin2 is reading This Is Where I Am by Karen Campbell, which was like attending a course of lectures run by the Refugee Council and the Glasgow Tourist Board.
Critter of the Day: Dunnock
Mar 20th 2017
Prunella modularis hiding in the hedge.
Admin1 is reading The Drowned Boy by Karin Fossum. Admin2 is reading The Sweetness of Life by Paulus Hochgatterer, a whodunnit set in Austria that chopped between characters until the plot was completely lost.
Bit of a Tit
Mar 15th 2017
Cyanistes caeruleus peeping through the branches.
Admin1 is reading The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry (a charming and engrossing love story). Admin2 is reading Skippy Dies by Paul Murray, but abandoned it because it was not outrageously hilarious unless there is humour in humiliation.
Critter of the Day: Blackbird
Mar 13th 2017
Admin1 is reading The Wolf in the Attic by Paul Kearney (a fine pastoral fantasy in the vein of Keith Roberts and Robert Holdstock, all of whom are much concerned with the English landscape). Admin 2 is reading The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry.
Critter of the Day: Starling
Mar 12th 2017
Sturnus vulgaris singing in the trees on an unexpectedly sunny day (warmest day so far this year too: 18.4°C).
Admin1 is reading No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary (melodramatic and almost laughably grim). Admin2 is reading Booked for Murder by VL McDermid.
And we unexpectedly scored 8 on the Guardian Weekend quiz, thanks to wild guesses or possibly unrecovered memories.
Critter of the Day: Robin
Mar 8th 2017
Wearing red in honour of International Women’s Day.
Admin1 is reading The Sword of Justice by Leif GW Persson. Admin2 is reading The Twilight Time by Karen Campbell