What a palaver it's been this weekend. The christening we attended was in the beautiful Holy Trinity church in Thorpe Hesley, which is at junction 35 of the M1. We stayed overnight, on Saturday, in the Travelodge at Meadowhall (junction 34) and that's where the fun started. On Friday evening we'd attempted to book a room but the Travelodge website just kept sending us round in circles so, in the end, we decided to just drive up there and book a room when we arrived. Simple, you would think? Not a bit of it.
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| A really nice, fresh, example of Convolvulus Hawk-moth |
We left the bags in the car whilst we went into reception, to see if we could get a room, only to be told that we had to do it online! You what? Two girls on the desk were unable to do anything more than provide us with a telephone number to the central booking office. So we stood in the reception area, talking to a guy in an office somewhere else, whilst the girls studied their screen so as to confirm our booking once the telephone antics had been completed. And we call this progress? You couldn't make it up. The christening and the celebrations afterwards were a wonderful experience. Plenty of laughter and catching up with friends and faces who we've not seen for a while. We said our good-byes and were back on the road, south, just around 15.00 hrs. I was expecting another nightmare journey, as we'd experienced on our way up, but it was plain sailing and we arrived back home little more than four hours later. Brilliant, I was able to get the moth trap out and water the plants before it got dark.
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| Short-cloaked Moth which, according to UKmoths, flies in June & July? |
Checking the egg trays, this morning, was quite rewarding. Three more Convolvulus Hawk-moths added to the tally plus a very late example of Short-cloaked Moth. The highlight, however, wasn't a moth. A Western Conifer Seed Bug was potted up from the outside of the perspex dome. It is a very irregular visitor to the garden, so most welcomed as I rattled off a few shots for the record.
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| Western Conifer Seed Bug |
Not too sure when I'll next be out with the rods but, if the weather forecasts are correct, the conditions look absolutely spot on for moth migration over the next few nights. Watch this space.
I had to do similar once, funny thing was from my work phone it would have been 30 quid more expensive for the same room
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't surprise me - it's a weird world out there and one that I'm as far away from, as is possible, during my daily routine.
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