An occasional journal
wildlife
Critters of the Day: Green Shield Bugs
Sep 4th 2018
An adult hanging out with a teenager.
Admin1′s 700th book is The Hit by Nadia Dalbueno
Admin2 is reading The Outsider by Stephen King which contained a lot of product placement for the iPad.
Critter of the Day: Small Tortoiseshell
Sep 2nd 2018
One of many colourful visitors in recent warm days (30.4 °C today).
Admin1 is reading The American by Nadia Dalbueno.
We scored 7 on the GWQ, but would probably have done better if it wasn’t for those pesky kids.
Another Fly Undone
Sep 1st 2018
Victim of the sundew.
August was our warmest (average high 24.9 °C) and driest (28.8 mm) August ever recorded but the second-worst August for the solar panels (182.583kWh).
We are watching Hidden.
Fly Undone
Aug 30th 2018
A victim of the Venus flytrap.
Admin1 is reading The Few by Nadia Dalbueno, in which a detective struggling to overcome his family’s Mafia past investigates corruption and sordid goings-on in the highest levels of Italian society; pretty good, but not a book likely to be recommended by the Italian tourist board.
Admin2 is reading The Discourtesy of Death by William Broderick.
Coffee of the day: Hill and Valley.
Critter of the Day: Earthworm
Aug 26th 2018
Lumbricus terrestris crossing the road in the rain. We have had more rain today than in the whole of June, and unfortunately it coincided with the Reggae Concert.
Admin1 is reading The Discourtesy of Death by William Brodrick (intriguing and well-written; excellent).
Coffee of the day: Nicaragua El Amparo Caturra; sweet and chocolatey.
Critter of the Day: Celastrina argiolus
Aug 3rd 2018
Same flower, different flyer: the Holly Blue.
Admin1 is reading Salt Lane by William Shaw.
Critter of the Day: Pyrausta purpuralis
Aug 2nd 2018
There are hundreds of these tiny moths all over our herbs.
Admin2 tried reading The Causal Angel by Hannu Rajaniemi (too Strossful), The Stalker by Lars Kepler (not another bloody woman butchered in chapter 1) and is now trying Broken Heart by Tim Weaver.
Critter of the Day: Polygonia c-album
Jul 19th 2018
Comma on a buddleia.
Another >30°C day.
Admin1 is reading The Vinyl Detective: Victory Disc by Andrew Cartmel (jolly japes with cats, big band jazz and badgers). Admin2 is reading Time Is a Killer by Michel Bussi which was rather disappointing: the precocious little girl that seems to be the signature in his other books has grown into a self-obsessed teenager and the culture and history of Corsica on which so much hinges is still a closed book to me.
Flying the Nest
Jul 15th 2018
It’s flying ant day again, but this time the ants are not so many nor so big.
Admin1 is reading The Seagull by Anne Cleeves. Admin2 is reading Cry for Help by Steve Mosby. We scored 9.5 on the GWQ.
Critter of the Day: Inachis io
Jul 13th 2018
First peacock butterfly we’ve seen this year. And the first rain we have seen for nearly a month: a whole 0.3mm.
Admin1 is reading The Cruel Stars of the Night by Kjell Eriksson, but gave up after 70 pages of gloomy introspection. Admin2 is reading Snow Blind by Ragnar Jonasson.
Critter of the Day: Tyria jacobaeae
Jul 12th 2018
Caterpillars of the cinnabar moth feeding on a weed by our pond.
Admin2 is reading A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood: a lad and his mad bad dad set off for Leeds and nothing is ever the same again. Gripping and gut-churning; quite different from his other two books but just as good.
Critter of the Day: Small Tortoiseshell
Jul 5th 2018
A colourful butterfly at last! We’ve seen nothing but speckled woods and cabbage whites up to now.
Admin2 is reading The Girl Before by JP Delaney: a succession of traumatised women move into a futuristic house with coercive control built into the T&Cs.
Out of the Door
Jun 3rd 2018
The cats went outside for the first time today.
Admin1 is reading The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths. Admin2 is reading A House of Knives by Willam Shaw.
Coffee of the day: Colombia Finca las Mercedes la Isla; rich and dark like the Sultan of Brunei.
We scored 11 on the GWQ, mostly through wild guesses.
Waiting at the Window
Jun 2nd 2018
The cats still have not been let outside. Tomorrow maybe.
Admin1 is reading Dead Silent by Mark Roberts. Admin2 is reading The Vanishing Box by Elly Griffiths.
Pigeon Post
May 20th 2018
This crazy bird perched on the weather station and went for a spin on the anemometer.
Admin1 is watching Doctor Who series 10 and reading The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths. Admin2 is reading The Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood: fun stories about old people getting up to dirty tricks.
Cats’ Cradle
May 18th 2018
Meet Titan (big and bright orange) and Ganymede (pale and pretty). Titan was originally the forthcoming cat but he turned very shy while Ganymede came out of his shell and amused everybody with his entertaining acrobatics. Now they are both out and proud.
Admin2 is reading The American Lover by Rose Tremain.
Meet the New Cat (2 of 2)
Apr 26th 2018
Here’s the shy brother cat which has a slightly lighter coat and a less stripy tail. And here’s a rainbow.
Admin1 is reading The Dead Tracks by Tim Weaver. Admin2 is reading The Mechanical Devil by Kate Ellis.
Meet the New Cat (1 of 2)
Apr 24th 2018
We have had two lovely brother cats since Friday but they have spent the past few days in hiding, only venturing out in the dead of night. They are gradually becoming braver and this chap is quite friendly, but the other spends most of his time squeezed into an inaccessible corner behind the kitchen cupboards. Early days.
Admin1 is reading Holy Ceremony by Harri Nykänen. Admin2 is reading The Silver Pillow by Thomas M Disch.
Critter of the Day: Robin
Apr 22nd 2018
Cooling its claws in the pond waterfall.
Admin2 is reading The Beige Man by Helene Tursten.
We scored 10.5 on the GWQ. Thx Audrey.
Jay of the Day
Apr 10th 2018
Yay and Hooray! Admin2 has been stalking this bird unsuccessfully for ages but Admin1 photographed it through a rainy window on our most dismal April day ever (0.42kWh).
Admin1 is reading Silenced by Kristina Olsson. Admin2 is reading The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths.