A fine crop ...

... of caterpillars!
Too numerous to count - but not a surprise [perhaps in view of the vast number of butterflies I've seen so far this summer. Lots more moths than usual too, leading to many bedtime chases as Archie will not settle if one is flapping round the room. The bats are back again too - one was dancing all round my head the other evening out in the garden: it was a real delight. Does anyone know of good bat boxes so I can buy a couple to put up? All the ones I have found so far have been smooth, finished wood, and bats apparently prefer it to be rough and unfinished so they can get a grip on it with their little bat feet :-)
Anyway, here is a picture of that caterpillar crop ...

More signs of autumn

Whippet o'clock

Another indication that autumn has arrived: Archie is happy to stay in bed longer in the mornings and no longer wakes me up at 5am with a determined prod from a cold wet nose and doing his greeting-the-sun dance. Time to start setting the alarm in the morning - whippet alarm clocks are very efficient during the summer, but less reliable in the winter!

We also had a very restless night last night before Archie felt safe to settle in his bed for the evening, due to the usual seasonal invasion of the house by spiders moving in from the cold garden outdoors. They seemed to have all targeted the bedroom, and in the end I had to go fetch the long-handled microfibre duster and remove the lot from the ceilings and tops of the walls where they had cosily made themselves at home. Archie sat and apprehensively watched, but once satisfied that the last of them had been banished at last settled in his bed for the night ... He's not keen on moths either. And tomorrow it is the annual village show where everyone competes with their allotment produce. It is an early start, so I must remember to look out the alarm clock!

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