A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare
W. H. Davies
We took time out on Wednesday to buy sandwiches from the supermarket and take a drive into the countryside. It wasn’t as comfortable as it could have been because I had a feeling that I should have planned better and made our own sandwiches. In my defence we didn’t know what time Julia’s meeting would end and everything was a bit chaotic.
Shopping at the supermarket still doesn’t feel comfortable, paying the cost of ready made sandwiches seems extravagant after months of economy, and aimlessly driving in the countryside also seems wrong.
On the other hand, sitting at home is beginning to wear a bit thin too.
We eventually found a verge to park on and ate sandwiches whilst watching the local wildlife – which was butterflies. The flies were too small to see from the car, the grasshoppers were hidden and though we heard the call of pheasants and saw a few wood pigeons there didn’t seem to be much bird life about either.
By the time I got out of the car, brushing crumbs from my newly decorated shirt, the Peacock and the White butterflies had all gone and the promising reddish brown ones all turned out top be Gatekeepers, which are common, and not much more interesting than the Peacocks and Whites.
I clearly need to brush up on my butterfly stalking technique,and my grasshopper hunting methods as I managed to see them only as they leapt to escape my feet. I didn’t get a single grasshopper shot, just a few flies as a relief from Gatekeepers.
Even my attempts at photographing sloes were thwarted by a sparse selection and poor lighting. It’s bad when you can’t even get a shot of something that just hangs there without moving…
My efforts are a far cry from the fine efforts made by Beating the Bounds, a blog I haven’t read for a while. On seeing this post, I was glad I had chosen to return.
As you can tell from the captions, I have returned to my original style of uninformative caption. I must do better, but, to be honest, I’ve made it through the first 62 years without trying too hard, so why change now?
They say that hard work never killed anybody, but that’s what I thought about Covid 19 to start with. It seems silly to take a chance.
The final shot is the Grasshopper that emerged from the garden when we returned home on Friday– displaying itself on the tarmac. This is not the setting you most associate with an insect that has the word “grass” in its name.
Grasshopper on tarmac – probably a Common Field Grasshopper
It is a trade off between working or going places, and staying safely at home. Every once in a while a fun day out is probably just what you need, but please do stay safe and keep your distance from others. Yes, grocery shopping is much more of an ordeal than it used to be.
Yes, I will heed your advice. 🙂
I’ve just enjoyed a home assembled spam sandwich.
I have a tin of spam on the shelf at the moment – part of my emergency ration. I need to rotate my stock so was wondering about sandwich or salad…
Sandwich sounds good. Salad is healthier. Decisions…
Fritters?
I’d forgotten fritters…
🙂
Actually, buying sandwiches and going for a drive sounds lovely.
I’ve definitely had worse days. 🙂
Oh, I hear you about staying home wearing thin AND going out feeling wrong. I am right there with you. I had 2 things I was supposed to go do today and cancelled them both because I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I have allergies, and I run (sucking in LOTS of allergens) so a sore throat usually leads to nothing – but in a pandemic I now feel like a pariah.
Your nature photos are beautiful – just because Gatekeepers are so common to you doesn’t mean we all are familiar with them. That’s the lovely part about blogging – we are all so different.
I do have to comment on the grasshopper on the road thing. I am a runner, and, other than catterpillars, grasshoppers are the thing that I have to leap over the most. They are ALWAYS in the street!
They normally lurk in the ragged vegetation that we call “the front garden”. We don’t see many on the paths, but let’s face it, I don’t do a lot of running. 🙂
Your ‘insects’ are red solider beetles, one of the few that I can identify.
Thank you. I knew if I posted and looked hopeless someone would tell me…