The bird has flown....

I'm beginning to think that I've become a nature diarist rather than blog about the creative avenues I'm meant to be exploring! It's just that it is such a fertile time of year that you can't escape Mother Nature at the moment. Take this beautifully constructed nest - which we found on the ground, blown out of a tree (probably because it was empty).

We have about a dozen nest boxes around the garden, most of them hidden, and we do not know what uses them until we clean them out later in the year. Most times we see nothing except for the box right opposite our back windows. Around the rest of the garden we have the swallows in our little outbuilding and now we've seen a couple of blackbirds using one of the ash trees as a nesting site. We found this little nest yesterday and you can see from the size of it in my husband's hand that it is tiny.

It is almost certainly a goldfinch nest which makes sense given the number we have around here. The size and material used to line it are spot on for goldfinches. I think it is exquisite.

Other things out in force at the moment are Painted Lady butterflies. It's been all over the papers about huge numbers flying in from the continent and friends have reported 'clouds' of them up by the North Pembrokeshire coast. We have not seen mass numbers but saw a large number yesterday in a short space of time.

My husband thinks it was the same butterfly going round in a circuit so believes we saw one butterfly lots of times. I'd like to think they're here in force but in truth we only saw one land and feed! I hope he's not right....

Last night saw a fantastic night for moths. These are Elephant Hawkmoths. Wonderful, just wonderful.

I promise to try and get back to my original focus for this blog soon but I am desperately waiting for the swallows to fledge and won't be able to stop reporting when they do. Every day is a vigil, keeping my eyes on the doorway or listening for the parents distress calls when the pesky magpies come sniffing around. When they do I'm over there like a shot clapping my hands and shooing them away. I'm a regular one woman vigilante group...... Do I need to get a life?

Workshop Beauties

Today, we went to a Moth Recorder's workshop organised by Butterfly Conservation. It was held in a village about 20 miles away and we had a wonderful day. We started by looking at a couple of traps that had been set out last night nearby. Great things were not expected as numbers were low but we were delighted with the variety of species in them.

Although I have found much to recommend in many types of moth, if I had a favourite it would be the Privet Hawkmoth pictured here. I have never embraced the concept of 'less is more' and whilst the chaps are keen on the smaller micro moths, give me full blown, in your face, over the top, every time. This moth is almost the size of a small bird, evidenced by the small Pale Prominent beside it in the egg box. I love that combination of brown and pink stripes and shall be hoping we see a few more over the next few weeks in our trap at home.

One moth we have never seen before is the Eyed Hawkmoth, seen here on Janet's sleeve. It is more common north of the county than in the area we live. What a shame. Not only was it stunning to see at rest, it was even better when it was placed on a tree trunk to prepare itself for flight.

All moths warm up by vibrating their wings to bring their body temperature back from the torpor of the day 'at rest'. Having one on your hand doing this before take off is a real privilege. This beauty was doing exactly that as I tried to photograph it, hence the very shaky look of my photo. I tried to get a shot of its beautiful blue and pink eyes on its hindwings but only managed a tantalising glimpse. Too bad. Doesn't it make you want to see more of these lovely things?

More moths...

West Wales did not enjoy the same sunshine as everywhere else yesterday but the temperature was steady. It did not fall below 12 degrees all night so it was a perfect night to put a trap out.

We had over 130 moths this morning - filling the trap, clinging to the outside and smothering my workshop where we plug the trap in at night. This is way up the garden and it means the lights don't disturb anyone - especially us! It is a very very bright bulb.

Here are some new ones whose photos I've not posted before. It's coming up to the best time of year when you get the wonderful large hawkmoths but this moth here is one of the smallest. It is so small it is often mistaken for a bird dropping but it is known as The Chinese Character.

The Iron Prominent

Buff Ermine

The Coronet

The Drinker

The Drinker is quite large and unmistakeable. So many moths have just one word names like this. My favourites are The Anomalous, The Vapourer and The Uncertain.... you sort of think there should be one called The Hesitant or The Ditherer....

A breath of sea air

My friends think I am mad because I get up at 5.30 to see my husband off to work, but I have always been a serial 'early riser' and believe it to be the best part of the day. If you get going early, you can achieve such a lot if you want to.

My 'to do' list today included the weekly shop and I usually like to be in and out just after they open their doors but it was such a glorious morning I detoured beforehand to Abereiddi to walk and enjoy the early morning weather. I arrived about 7.15 and there was no-one to be seen so I had this wonderful place all to myself.

The Blue Lagoon at Abereiddi is the site of old quarrying and mining activity. Not obvious today, it's waters are usually a deep milky turquoise blue, the result of slate and other materials settled down in its depths. The days of industry are long gone and Abereiddi is now a great place to walk the coastal path over to Porthgain, another remnant of Pembrokeshire's industrial past. I didn't go that far today though. There was a brisk breeze, it was wonderfully 'fresh' and I just enjoyed the peace and quiet.

The coastal path and rocks were covered in thrift. What a wonderful way to start the day. Fingers crossed for a beautiful summer so that I can do it more often!

Bright, bright,bright

Being a disloyal shopper I will go anywhere for my weekly shop and whilst in a local Asda the other day I saw a bag for a fiver in exactly the shape and style above. It even had a magnetic catch and must sadly have been made in a third world sweatshop to enable them to sell it so cheaply and still make a profit. So, I decided to see if I could make one for the same price. (Why not? It's not as if I don't have any other projects in the pipeline to occupy my time....)

The fabric for the handles and lining were free as they were given to me and the outer fabric was taken from some fabric I bought at Ikea recently. Not everyone's colour I'm sure but I am a pushover for anything with birds on and I had to have some of it. I have used about half a metre (£2.00). I think I bought the buttons in Hay on Wye a long time ago. I doubt they were cheap but no more than about £1.50 each so I reckon I have made the bag for the same price. I left out the magnetic catch and substituted the buttons for decoration as detailed below.

Now the only question is 'Do I use it myself?' or give it as a gift to someone with a good strong pair of sunglasses?

All in a night's work

The feedback from the County Moth Recorder yesterday was encouraging. His regular traps are only seeing moths coming to light in small numbers so we are not alone in seeing less of them this year. In saying that, yesterday's warm weather encouraged us to trap for a second consecutive night and we had a real mixed bag this morning, including the Gold Spot (above) and this beautiful Herald (below). In five years of collating moth records we have never seen one of these yet they are not an uncommon species.

Look at those lovely colours and markings. Such a wealth of material for sketchbooks, prints and design work.

Poplar Hawk Moth

Muslin Moth

Once we've recorded the species and numbers the trap is put in a quiet place until dusk when we uncover it and let the moths fly out again to fight another day.We have to make sure life goes on.

All in a day's work

Isn't it amazing how a change in the weather suddenly makes us feel more 'with it'. I am definitely spurred on by increased light and warmth although I wish I could be more focussed. My brain fizzes with too many ideas and I find I'm working on lots of disparate things instead of concentrating on the bigger picture. Still, I've always been like it so making the change won't come easy! Yesterday I finished a couple of outstanding things that were floating around on my mental 'to do' list and I finally made the book with old collagraph plate covers.

I decided to do this a couple of weeks ago after my printing workshop. Sue used old prints as the text pages and a Japanese stab binding but as I was already thinking about something else whilst doing mine I cut my pages the same size as the two plates and then realised I could not use them for this particular binding process. See? Focus required! So, on to Plan B and the only other option - a coptic stitch binding.

First thing, I cut my signatures and added sections of old prints to reinforce the spines.

I used a contrasting thread and a single needle. As always, a tricky process but effective and.....

...at last I have a finished book. I'm going to use it as a sketchbook for ideas/thoughts towards the project work with my friends. It will help me focus ..... won't it?