Unusual Day

Friday July 26

It all started rather normally. Very hot indeed, in the 30sC  Pam had put two traps out last night and we were inundated with both Micros and Macros. They are so active at the moment, every time I lift the lid, a cloud of moths escape. Oh the what ifs. What if one of them was a really good moth !

This Scallop Shell is a favourite, so delicately and intricately patterned.

Moth trap invaders are an entry in themselves. This is the first Lesser Stag Beetle we have found, trundling around, blundering into and through anything in its way..They feed on rotting wood. 

On entering the utility room, in response to the washing machine's final tuneful melody, Pam glimpsed a lizard or newt scuttling away. With Adrian's help, she trapped it in a butterfly net and he knelt to slide a piece of card underneath. It was a Common Lizard, it's tail rings bearing evidence of the tail having been broken off and re-grown at least once.

At the bottom of the trap we found a fully winged Roesel's Bush-cricket. We'd never seen one before.

Until the early 20th century, Roesel's Bush-cricket was only found on the south-east coast. Recent years have seen a rapid expansion in its range, particularly helped by roadside rough grassland and scrub providing a 'corridor' for it to travel along. It favours damp meadows and grassland, but can be found elsewhere. It is usually wingless, but a rare winged form does exist and fly, and may be more numerous during hot summers.

In the afternoon, the smoke alarm at the top of the stairs started bleeping. It drives me mad. Neither of us is capable - nor should we - climb steps to replace the battery in such a precarious place. Rai will help when he returns from North Walsham. 

Then.......in all the heat, the fan only whirred very slowly, the grill would only get warm and then stop heating, the trip switch went off and nothing but the lights would work when we sorted the trip switch. 

Barbara arrived. Their power was so low that nothing would work. So it wasn't just us. Rai rang the electricity people who said that there was a fault in our sub station '' due to the heat''. I'm surprised that it wasn't leaves on the line.

The promised 5 p.m. switch on did not materialise until 9 p.m. by which time we'd bought supper from Walcott and eaten it on the patio, enjoying the evening in the garden.

Sara theorised that the low power we were getting was from our solar panels, Rai and Barbara have them too. Must ask Rai, he was an electrical engineer by trade.