Well, I'm here and alive enough to post - always a good thing I reckon. My
surgery did go ahead on Weds 15th June, though I knew nothing of it until
being brought out of sedation and off of a ventilator on 16th morning which
probably helped with managing the pain a bit. I spent the first day in
intensive care, just about getting over the anaesthetic whilst developing a
morphine addiction. On Friday I got moved to a general ward, and spent the
next three days gradually becoming more self-dependent and mobile. Much to my
surprise and relief, on Monday 20th they muted that perhaps I could go home
early (fully expected a 10 - 14day stay) as long as I came back in for a
couple of check ups on the Weds and Friday - I didn't hesitate in imploring
them to make it happen. I hate hospitals at the best of times, but being in
there once you are actually mobile and looking after yourself is absolutely
the most soul-destroying and mind-numbing thing imaginable. So on Monday night
I was home and happy.
Tuesday 21st June was a nice warm sunny day so I was pleased to be able to
intersperse sleeping, relaxing and generally lounging about with forays into
the garden for fresh air and to watch a few insects on the border flowers. It
dawned on me that with the sun shining, and with it requiring virtually zero
effort, I could dangle a couple of lures. So I tried both VES and FOR with
success, one Orange-tailed Clearwing to the VES lure and x3 Red-tipped
Clearwings to the FOR lure. I wasn't up to fannying about with a camera though
so only managed a couple of crappy phone shots ....
Orange-tailed Clearwing
Red-tipped Clearwing
I think the adrenaline of seeing clearwing and the euphoria at being home overtook
common sense, and I put the moth trap on for the night. Surgery and being in
hospital screws up your sleep pattern for ages so getting up early to empty it
wasn't a problem, though it was a bit more physical effort than was perhaps
good for me. Nothing exciting in there, but it was looking sunny again so out
went the LUN lure despite it being perhaps a bit early for the target. By
08:30 there were x2 Lunar Hornet Moths in the trap. All the more excellent as
with the pre-surgery records of Currant and Red-belted, all x5 clearwing
species that I recorded here last year have come again - no flash in the pan
luck involved, all clearly present within close enough proximity to come to
the lures reasonably soon after deployment.
Lunar Hornet Moth
Again, the moth trap went out and again with some effort I got it done early
in the morning. This time though there was excitement, a new for garden macro
and a decent migrant that warranted a quick snap with the camera ....
Scarlet Tiger
An expected addition to the garden list with recent expansion in VC55 range,
shame it was a bit tatty.
Bordered Straw - second garden record after one in 2006
The moth trap went out again on Thursday 23rd June, back to standard fare and
by now I was thinking that I'd perhaps overdone it, so the trap got put away
as the weather faded a bit anyway.
A week or so after surgery, things can go two ways. You either feel like
you're getting somewhere and feeling a bit stronger each day, or you start to
slide and feel a bit crapper. Over the weekend I felt a bit lethargic and
lacking energy, and on Monday I was in incredible pain in my left kidney. Back
to the hospital to be checked, and I ended up being re-admitted with bloods
showing infection markers. A subsequent CT scan showed a build up of likely
infected fluid stuck in a pocket somewhere in my pelvis, which would require
draining under a radiologically guided procedure. By then I'd had a couple of
doses of IV antibiotics and was feeling fine again, but the NHS system
conspired against me and despite my protestations and moaning I ended up being
stuck back in there until the Friday evening whilst they tried to work out
if/how/when this would be done. I was absolutely exasperated; every day I was
nil by mouth from midnight to c4pm just in-case they managed to fit me into
someone's schedule, whilst being sedentary and having bugger all to do. On the
Friday I made it clear I'd had enough and I was seriously on the page of
walking out and self-discharging, luckily they'd already come to the
conclusion and seen sense that they were better off bending their own rules
and essentially discharged me without discharging me, so that I could go back
for the procedure at an appointed time as a day case.
Back home for another week, gradually building myself up again after going
backwards in hospital. Yesterday I went in for a CT Guided Drain procedure -
and by christ it was the most painful experience of my life, local anaesthetic
only works so deep, and to avoid any remaining organs or major blood vessels
they went in the most direct route - basically they skewered my backside and
it fucking hurt! Anyway, it's done now and I can get back on with recovering
(although the drain will of course have to some back out, which will also be
uncomfortable but a lot quicker!). I'm actually feeling a lot perkier now and
I'm okay with basic pain relief. I've got a long way to go with recovery but
feel like I'm on the right path now.
Having major surgery, losing body parts and being in pain or uncomfortable etc
is of course worth it if it means I'm still here for the foreseeable, watching
the kids grow up (metaphorically, they've already grown up physically), being
here for and with Nichola and contributing to society. The surgeon told me
last week that the histology on the stuff they removed has clear margins -
that should mean I am cancer-free and there will be no further treatment. I'd
really like to hear that again with Nichola by my side at a formal
post-surgery consultation in due course.
The trap will be back out tonight, I've missed some of the best mothing
weather for ages and feel like I need to get back on track. I'm also able to
sit at the desktop PC for a while now - hence posting.
I realise that a lot of this post is a bit self-centered and unlikely to be of
any interest to anyone, but as I'm sure I've said before I write this blog for
me first and foremost.
In other news, apparently a large number of MPs in the lying bastard party
with no integrity and morals have realised that their leader really is a lying
bastard with the integrity and morals of a pile of bat guano. Who knew!
I really like this new track from Simple Minds ....
I had a few days over in the Netherlands last week for some European football
(albeit in the new third tier UEFA Europa Conference League, though we're in good
company having already put out Rennes and not beating PSV Eindhoven in their home ground, with Roma coming up in the semi-finals).
It's the first time I've travelled overseas since our Caribbean cruise in
2018, thanks to health issues and covid. Of course it was also the first
post-Brexit experience in a European airport as a non-EU traveller .... Glad I
don't have a need to travel for work anymore.
Whilst away the weather turned properly warm and sunny for a few days, though
over the couple of nights that I've had the trap out since getting home you'd
not think it. Poor catches and not much variety as yet.
Oak-tree Pug
Golden-rod Pug
A typically duff looking individual - abdominal plates checked.
Least Black Arches
Dromius meridionalis
The first non-lep in the trap that I've bothered to point the camera at so
far this year
I've got some time off of work next week too, though we'll mainly be
planting up our new raised beds and nipping down to Devon for a quick visit.
This evening when I left work the sun was shining and it had warmed up a fair
bit. I've had a lazy few days for one reason or another and wanted to get out,
but knew that there would be very little time for much. As it happens I was
copied on an e-mail earlier in the day from our CMR, Adrian Russell, with
ideas for a bit of square-bashing for leaf mining moths based on squares that
are devoid of records of one of our commonest leaf miners - Parornix
anglicella. The (very reasonable) theory being that tetrads with no records of
this species have probably never been covered for any leaf mining species. I
quickly checked the nearest empty square - SP6086 a bit south-east of home
near to the village Walton ....
There are two roads that run through the square, so likely it would be possible
to park up and have a mooch along a hedgerow. I'd never knowingly been into this
square, and certainly there is nothing in it that would normally warrant any
interest. A closer look on satellite view did nothing to change that view. Lots
of fields, not lots of woodland or copses and not much in the way of access.
In both of the above maps, there is a point marked 'recording'. This was in no
way a pre-planned spot - it is simply where I stopped once on the right road
and checked that I was in the square before parking up and getting out.
If I had pre-planned it, I would be very smug at the fact that right here was
a decent range of hedgerow trees and shrubs plus some non-natives planted
there I imagine many years ago. As I didn't pre-plan it I just feel lucky.
Within 20 meters or so either side of where I pulled into a field entry were:
oak, ash, rowan, lime, elm sp, 'cherry' prunus sp., hawthorn, blackthorn,
bittersweet, bramble, rosa sp., bindweed, willowherbs and other low-growing
vegetation. Plenty to look through in the c40 mins I had left of daylight.
I've ended up with a bagful of mines, most common and readily identifiable
with one or two to check further. One I have sorted though is this new for me
tenanted mine of Ectoedemia atricollis on hawthorn ....
Egg on underside, gallery running around leaf edge leading to blotch, larva
with dark head
I lose interest in hawthorn very quickly when I do look for leaf mines, so I
doubt I would have come across this one if I'd not been actively looking to
create a few records for a blank square.
Whilst pulling low branches of lime looking for mines, without success I
should add, I inadvertently knocked this off from its roost ....
Southern Hawker
This one has been a major earworm of mine over the last week - I like the odd way it just starts like you're in the middle of the song.
Round two with the new (un)improved editor interface ....
Today has been very sultry: warm, humid and a few torrential downpours. I had
intended to get out but after a lazy post-trap lie-in I had two false starts;
just as I was about to leave the rain came down like monsoon season. By the time
it stayed dry it was late afternoon, so I opted for a walk down the lane. No
net: it's pointless sweeping vegetation after rain as the net gets knackered.
However I had a bagful of pots and managed to collect a variety of sawflies and
diptera just by hand-potting them from umbelifiers. It wasn't exactly the most
efficient method, but successful enough. The specimens include a large
tachinid-looking fly that I think will be new to me.
The moth-trap was again busy, but I definitely missed out on a new beetle ....
This Helophorus sp. was massive compared to the usual trap-visitors - a
fact that I overlooked and completely forgot about after going through the
rest of the egg boxes so the specimen was chucked out with the rest of the
catch. It's either H. aequalis or H. grandis - both equally likely in a garden
trap in Leics. They can be separated from features on the last sternite
apparently, so I definitely need to remember about this if another turns up.
I potted up a variety of moths to photograph for a change. Selecting which
moths to point the camera at is arbitrary: anything new to garden obviously,
anything unusual for the garden likely, but beyond that it's just what I feel
like bothering with.
Elephant Hawk-moth
Burnished Brass
Figure of Eighty
Dusky Brocade
Ingrailed Clay
Small Dusty Wave
Single-dotted Wave
Teleiodes vulgella
Both of the following are, I'm sure, Notocelia trimaculana. I have no
doubt about that personally, but there was a recent suggestion that this and
Notocelia rosaecolana cannot be reliably separated. I think that may be true
for worn specimens, but I reckon differences in the costal strigulae and
general size and tone (smaller/dark vs larger/bright) will still be good. For
the moment though there is a need to build up a pattern so both of these, and
perhaps a couple of others through the season, will be gen detted.
Sheesh. Blogging is going to become a real chore at this rate. Once again post created in twice the time it normally takes, labels applied painfully one-by-one after saving as draft, only to then have an error with labels that prevents publication. I've also noticed that the ability to force images to higher res (?) is perhaps missing - need to look at that in more detail. Revert to legacy - publish fine.
Although as it happens from Tuesday I am back at work, actually in the Factory away from the 'home-office' (I was off on Monday anyway as this weekend we were supposed to be enjoying beer, cheer and music at the Isle of Wight Festival). At the start I was clamouring to be in the workplace; after enjoying the lockdown garden wildlife and local forays I'm starting to wish I was retired .....
Yay, I survived. Home just in time to enthusiastically get the moth trap on before fatigue and reality hit me hard this morning. Still, better to be sore and alive than possibly be not feeling anything.
Not much to shout about in said trap, but a knackered Acleris cristana and these two were NFY.
A post title that's sure to mean nothing to anyone who never saw the photo of LRG Ego out twitching in his highly flammable best. Long before that though, such garb was being badly worn in 80s music videos, like this one:
Great 80's Pop from Scritti Politti - absoloutely shite video and even worse clubbing clobber
I've been listening to a fair bit of old 80s pop whilst driving up and the M5 this weekend - all good stuff from my youth.
Great song, better clothing of the day, pretention levels at max power
Another i-pod full of early 80s synth pop and suchlike, must be a mid-life crisis or something but I keep going back to my earliest musical memories.
The tracks include some excellent early stuff by Ultravox long before Midge Urine became best pals with Sir Bob:
These early 80s videos are the definition of pretentious, but this track in particular is great with that throbbing analogue bassline.
Also on the playlist is Vince 'I can't stand the fame' Clarke with Alison 'should have done opera' Moyett, or Yazoo if you prefer:
A band that I thoroughly liked for a long while, before they released the likes of 'Alive and Kicking' and 'Waterfront', was Simple Minds. I like the very early stuff, but the later New Gold Dream album was a favourite then and now:
In fact, the whole listening experience has been so enjoyable I'm leaving it on for another week or so.
