Time / Live

It's the same old for me in later summer / early autumn: all of the enthusiasm that builds up to a spring and early summer peak seems to just dissipate. There is no trigger for this as such, but I seem to hit this every (normal) year one way or another. Part of it, I guess, is the additional strain on my time of working whilst others are off on their break - which usually means picking up additional work. And I generally don't get much a break during the summer; pre-Covid, when travel was actually possible, if we went abroad it would be later in the year anyway.

Either way, I've done nothing remotely noteworthy in the last couple of weeks or so. Even the garden trap has been quiet. And - at long last - we are actually going to get our garden ripped out and re-landscaped with some drainage. But that also means no or limited garden moth trapping for a good two or three weeks after this weekend.

I am looking forward to some live music though: a mix of things booked pre-Covid that were rescheduled (twice) and new events.

First up, I'll be heading to Sheffield for a slightly niche gig: Heaven 17 playing tracks from the first two Human League releases, Reproduction and Travelogue. Of course you all know that Heaven 17 were formed from the original Human League line-up (Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh were joined by Glenn Gregory after splitting with Phil Oakey and Adrian Wright). This was originally scheduled for March 2020, then Sep 2020 ....

A couple of weeks later, I'm off to the Isle of Wight Festival, the same one that was meant to be June 2020, then June 2021 .... Not the strongest festival line up you'll ever see, but it's a good crack and overall I'll probably spend more time the Big Top than at the main stage.

I'll be back in Sheffield in early October for a rescheduled 808 State gig ....

Later in October, I'm off to Birmingham to see Public Service Broadcasting ....

And looking further ahead, Gary Numan is popping into Leicester in May ....

Along with the return of full attendance Premier League games, some Europa League games coming up and a family break in October, my time for all things natural is stretched. But I'm sure the enthusiasm will return, as sure as the sun rises, and autumn turns to winter turns to ....

Oh! punticeps

That Ophonus sp. I mentioned, another one from the garden trap. As I'd said, the pronotal shape was wrong for O. ardosiacus and there was a single pronotal setae which excluded O. rufibarbis. So both of the most likely species were out of the frame, and all other Ophonus spp. are scarce / rare/ non-existent in VC55. The nearest I could get to through the key was O. punticeps, for which there were only two previous records - one in the 19th century and one from 1997. However, although I suggested it may be this to Graham Finch when asking for his help, I wasn't confident enough to pin my colours on the mast as it were.

Cue another e-mail from Graham; bugger me it is Ophonus punticeps. Here's another one of his superb photos.

If nothing else, it shows the value of actually looking at the beetles coming to the light trap. So often I only have a cursory look after dealing with the moths, and especially during the working week my time to look at other stuff in the trap - let alone photograph and pot them up - is limited. I must miss loads! That's nine new beetles for the garden list since 31/07 - all to light traps.

Today is proper dingy and wet though. I've spent most of the day so far getting records uploaded to Naturespot/iRecord and doing a bit of basic DIY for my Mum (basic is the only DIY I ever do). I'm going to catch up with the F1 later - call me a sucker for punishment.

This weekend I have mostly been listening to recent (within the last year) stuff by 808 State. I was meant to be going to their gig in March, which has been deferred to October .... let's see how that pans out. The niche gig I was also going to in March (Heaven 17 reworking the original Human League albums Reproduction and Travelogue) was originally deferred to September and now to September 2021! The Kasabian gig in June in Leicester was cancelled completely (before Tom Meighan's life went down the pan) and of course the Isle of Wight Festival, which was going to include The Chemical Brothers, was cancelled and tickets remain valid until next year. I don't think I'd ever been so pro-actively booked ahead for gigs and stuff and it all went to the proverbial.

This week, I have mostly been listening to ..

Oldskool/acid/rave - all with a big smiley face. Stuff like this: