NESSUN DORMA - Pavarotti

 The 31 July 1991 has to go down as one of the wettest rain-filled days since Summer records began, and one of the most unbelievable. My shipmate and Chief Engineer Andy Lindsay and I were programmed to return to the Floating Drilling Rig Stena Hunter in the North Sea the following day, so just lucky to share one of the most memorable days in both our lives. It was only as a result of surfing the channels on the TV on Friday evening that brought such a vivid memory back, as joining the 125,000 throng in Hyde Park for what was to become known as

PAVAROTTI in the PARK

It started out as just light drizzel at noon

but by 14:00 it was as though every gamp in the land was fluttering to the breeze?
However, it was but an hour later that the little known part of the gig took place as it was later reported that Luciano, who had been looking down on the sodden crowd from his hotel window, gathered a few of his mates, hit the stage in his street cloths and performed an impromtu!
The atmoshere even before this was 'electric' and as the afternoon and evening progressed

the croud simply bonded

and come the evening there wasn't a dry-eye in the place

and we ain't talking RAIN. Wehad never experienced anything like this before
and like will never do so again - what a DUDE!
The images were snapped from the TV.
Early morning, and a strange sight indeed asa young

ROE DEER
just plodded past the homestead not 30 feet away and something not seen before.
Otherwise the Moth Traps produced another most welcome brace of f.f.y. in the guise of

the tiny and delicate

SMALL CHOCOLATE-TIP

along with

ROSY RUSTIC
It was considered a welcome bonus to capture a

juvenle LINNET side by side with a WHITETHROAT

with the former lingering for another shot, while there is little in the way
of a carpet of

HEATHER
across the Heath only these occassional clumps along with the odd

GATEKEEPER
along with a free-flying

PINE HAWK-MOTH
about the only pristine one we have seen this year as the norm seems to be

like this very worn individual.
The daily report on the nesting

LITTLE GREBE

shows the floating platform still to be where it was

but still without sight of sound of a second adult.
Inside Bournemoth International Airport a new kid on the block a

ROBINSON R66 TURBINE
which we learn has recently been deployed to Greenland and Iceland while we also found

HERRING GULLs
still strangely sat on their nests - something not right there?

While at the Home Moth Traps we have a new mate in the form of this

juvenile

ROBIN

Ummagumma - Pink Floyd

Relatively quiet as we approach the weekend and even more rain predicted to visit us also, and still we are finding it impossible to stick the new video clips on the post. The success at the Moth Traps incuded the additions of

SOUTHERN WAINSCOT

a variety

of 4 different hue's of the

extremely variable

DUN-BAR

SLENDER BRINDLE
and

LESSER CREAM WAVE
and a hazy

WOLF SPIDER
Otherwise things were very much down to O.B.E.
Other Blokes Efforts
as we have had a nifty series of images transmitted to us over the last few days.
None more so than an update by John Gifford on the magnificent Walrus which Dave and I visited in Tenby, Wales some weeks ago now and has been a bit destructive and very mobile since then.

Back in Falmouth, Cornwall the local sea-fares have tied to

accommodate it by building this structure

onto which it may haul itself from time to time.
From the relentless Bomber we were extremely please to recieve this image of a

BROAD-BORDERED BEE HAWK-MOTH LARVAE (Catterpillar)

which, with a Fair Wind, will one day hopefully turn out like this.

The Grandchildren Alex, Fred, Benny and the lovely Lizzy have been observant as well while plodding the streets of Phnom Penh, where they are temporary residents, and spotting someone trying to keep up with the

Strange Rover (painful when yer R's drops off)

but not makeing much of a fist of it - "must try harder"!
Regular readers may well remember the not so distant post highlighting jazz musician, nightclub owner, Lord Louis Mountbatten's liberty boat coxswain et al Sam Fowler and the only man ever to have threatened Pink Floyd with Instant Dismissal - The Sack!!
The Floyd did eventually make it to the stage and weeks later wrote to Sam appologising for there behaviour and sending him a token of of their esteem in the shape of this

DEMO-DISC
of the track Careful With That Axe Eugene from their 4thstudio album

'UMMAGUMMA'
which on his passing he bequeathed to my longest standing friend in the world

JOHN 'SOOTY' STOCKLEY
Unlikely ever to part with it but just in case, I have already made a more than generous offer of £1.50, could you imagine what such an item might command?

Trivia:- Pink Floyd take their name from 2 legendary American Blues Howlers Pink Anderson and Floyd Council!

Finally, a visit to our dear friend Joyce who lives just 10 minutes down the road, well into her 90's and as 'bright as a button'. It is the well kempt garden which is as much of an attraction with these images doing it little justice at all - but we tried!

ALGERIAN CRIMSON FLAX

juvinile
LONG-TAILED TIT

KNAPWEED Sp

COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY

juvenile
ROBIN

and nesting

BARN OWL
debris, see you soon Joyce!

Communication Breakdown - Led Zeppelin

Appologies for the late arrival of today's Post, internet issues, maybe due to the continuing heavy rain?

On the face of it the return of fine weather yesterday might have brought with it more than it did, so while struggling we simply clicked what we could. A great start nonetheless as we plucked a 

DEWICK'S PLUSIA
from one of the traps close to home which sent the memory racing back to the early 70's!

Having been inspired by a very young Martin Cade, now Warden of the Portland Bird Observatory, my Mothing days were very new but within a matter of weeks did secure only the 16th of this Insect to have been recorded in Great Britain. Another enthusiast and occassional visitor to my then home in Wyke Regis, Weymouth, Norman Hall, coincided with the capture, threw a couple of cartwheels and shipped it off to the Royal Entomological Society to show the Hierarchy. It has become a little more common and more frequent in the meantime but still a welcome addition.
Clicking started with the

juvenile

BLACKBIRD's

on the lawn

and a search, without success, for the newly hatched
WOOD PIGEONs.

The MUTE SWAN family

were found to be

All Present and Correct
but a strange find clining to pond weed was this

POPLAR GREY MOTH

Nothing new from the traps on the Heath but from the

New Division

these juvenile

LINNETs

along with a single

MEADOW PIPIT

haven't been in the

World for Long.
Another 'free flyer' was an

ELEPHANT HAWK-MOTH
followed by a bunch of

THISTLES
we haven't sussed yet.

Finally, and still Best in Show the still lone

LITTLE GREBE

seems to have found sanctuary safely secured to the
Dockyard Wall.