Sunday 3 June 2012

Royal and rainy

Oh, well. The Queen's reign started in rain, so we can't complain that it's tipping down on this Diamond Jubilee morning. A day of macs and brollies and Britishness lies ahead. The moths will meanwhile have their heads down if they have any sense.



I loyally burned my mercury vapour flame last night and enticed a few arrivals, presumably before the heavens opened. There was a Garden Carpet, a Heart and Dart and a Shuttle-shaped Dart, plus two of my current Top Moth, the Common Swift (below, with my shapely thumb). I also took this rather startling picture of the light bulb as a tribute to HM the Queen. I wonder if it reveals the mercury vapour at work, like one of Marie Curie's early X-ray images. Probably not; but the little flies are good, aren't they? Courtiers in the beams of 60 Royal years. Do you remember Shakespeare's 'caterpillars of the Commonwealth' in Richard II?


I also tried to use various computer programmes to create a composite photograph of the Common Swift, HM and some raindrops, but I kept getting messages about needing TIFF and QuickTime compression which are incomprehensible at my age unless young relatives are visiting. So we will have to make do with these separate images. If you are street partying or similar, I hope that the sun comes out for you.

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