A Week Gone By

 Wednesday August 11

The planned visit to Titchwell was aborted when I did not wake until 9 a.m. - after five hours sleep. How about Strumpshaw and Buckenham instead? Maybe we should open the moth traps first, before it gets hot and the moths become very lively indeed. Despite the ice block topping, they are still active at this time of year. Gone are the days of opening the traps at dawn.

Weighing on my mind were the two mixing bowls full of blackcurrants, which I'd harvested on Sunday and Monday. We only have two bushes, one of them remains half picked, it was still over six pounds of cleaned fruit. I made jam last year, maybe coulis this year. 

There were seven, new for the garden year moths, in the traps to-day. 

Tree Lichen Beauty 

Our lovely, pearl-necklaced beauty, was constantly fluttering producing a less than sharp image. Perhaps we'll get another.

 

Norfolk status
Migrant species with only three recorded in the UK up until 1991. Subsequent records mainly from the south coast.
Increased records in the past few years indicate a resident population in Norfolk.

First Norfolk record July 2008 at Weybourne (M. Preston, 26/07/08).
First VC28 record at Holme NOA in 2013 (S. Barker, 13/08/13).
Third Norfolk record at Swanton Morley (J. & A. Stroud, 18/08/13).

Several records from across Norfolk in recent years.

Recorded in 58 (78%) of 74 10k Squares. First Recorded in 2008. Last Recorded in 2021. Norfolk Moths website

Crescent - poor photo, taken in egg box

 

Tawny Speckled Pug

 

Sallow Kitten

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many-plumed

 

Catoptria falsella and

 

 Garden Rose Tortrix - Acleris variegana

 

 

 

 

That outing? It did not happen. Instead, we cleaned the blackcurrants, weighed and cooked them, pulped the fruit using a hand blender, then pushed it through a sieve. That took care of the afternoon. 

They take a horrifying amount of sugar..........