Today was day two of Project Clear Out the Garage, and R and I absolutely smashed it. We have the skip for a week, in theory, but it’s already full, so we’ve contacted the company and told them they can collect it whenever they like. Somehow, in the intervals between running around dumping rubbish and bickering with R about the precise arrangement of the remaining garage contents, I also found time to make two lots of bread. Then this evening I went to choir practice, which in itself was pretty heroic, given how much I don’t enjoy singing Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. It’s possible that rather too much red wine was consumed when I got home.
Given everything else that was going on this morning, I was happy and relieved to spot this Hummingbird Hawkmoth on the red valerian as R and I were returning from the day’s first visit to the skip. While edging carefully past it on a wide trajectory, I looked back at R and said, “Don’t scare it away.” This earned me a Special Look, but it was a heavily overcast day with rain threatening, and there wasn’t much else showing in the garden, so I knew this was my best chance of an easy shot and I didn’t want to lose it. Not that these moths are easy, especially in poor light, but from grabbing the camera to nailing a few (score) reasonable images only cost me a couple of minutes, after which I was able to get back to work. It’s interesting to see such a fresh specimen this late in the season – suggesting to me that it was born recently and locally.
