It’s been hot, and the poultry and the polytunnels have both needed a lot of water. So did I by the time I’d spent the best part of twenty minutes in the tunnels.
However, I did get a reasonable picture of an angle shades moth, as featured in the opening picture. We had one about two years ago. It was blown onto a table outside while I was having a drink on a blustery day, clung on for a few minutes to allow me to take a blurred picture, and then flew away at high speed as the wind took it again.
This one was more leisurely.
We’ve had an attack of chintz in the cafe, which is starting to resemble my memories of my grandmother’s front room. Apart from the piles of sugary snacks and the juice drinks, and the notices. Looks like we’re having a turf war again, as all my pizza ingredients and the emergency gluten free bases have all been moved to the ice cream freezer. Apart from the notice banning me from the fridge freezer I’ve had another one ordering me not to move anything round.
I’ve also had to move out of the store cupboard I was using so they could fit an extra table in.
Jonathan Swift wrote: When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him.
It does seem that there is a confederacy of dunces ranged against me, but I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions.
They have a group of specially invited people coming round on Saturday to test the new look cafe. Now, I’m not a marketing genius but, as I’ve been telling them for a while, the people we need to talk to are the ones that don’t come, or the ones who come once and don’t come back. The friends who come for a chat every Saturday morning are nice people and loyal customers, but their opinions aren’t going to help us appeal to a wider customer base.
Needless to say, I haven’t been invited. It must be something I said…
We’ve had a good showing of Small Tortoiseshells in the last week or so, which is a relief as they seemed to have almost died out. There is a parasitic wasp that attacks them; it arrived from the continent some years ago and in some areas has almost wiped the Small Tortoiseshell out. We’ve also had several pairs of Painted Ladies, some silver Y moths and an upsurge of mint moths.
So far we haven’t had any hummingbird hawk moths this year but they only started to show in late August last year so there is still hope.
Sorry you’ve had trouble from the café people – all sounds a bit selfish to me – and cliquey. Thanks for the link re the parasitic wasp – I hadn’t heard of this problem. The year before last we had a glut of Small Tortoiseshells; they were everywhere for a couple of weeks. Last year we had a fair few but not as many as the year before and this year I haven’t seen any!
I was glad to see them come back after seeming to disappear.
As for the psychology of the cafe – I’m thinking of devoting a whole chapter of my memoirs to it. 😉
😀
Great moth picture. It is a pity Swift didn’t speak of a confederacy of chumps
Yes, it would have been handy…
A Confederacy of Dunces is one of my favorites! I didn’t know the title of the Toole book was from a Swift quote. Another favorite of mine.
Have you ever heard about how the Toole book was almost never published? His other novel was not as good unfortunately. What an odd cat he was.
I often quote Ignatius when someone is pestering me. “Stop molesting me!”
I kept seeing it on lists of must-read books so I thought I’d give it a go – strange to think it nearly didn’t make it into print. Loved the book but not keen on Ignatius – I suppose that’s a sign of good writing. 😉
Yeah, his mom’s dogged determination is the only reason it was ever published. Way to go mom!
Yes, remarkable mother!
oh dear…. sounds like you might as well not contribute to the cafe discussion – there are none so deaf as those who do not wish to hear, Anyway – fabulous moth – we had an angle shades the other evening here, too, plus a visit from a many-plumed moth
Don’t have much time for the cafe – too busy trying to spot moths! 😉
sounds like that’s a sensible choice!