Moth Trap

My friend Rachael, she who encouraged and helped us to start making a proper natural meadow, came over this afternoon. She had a look at the patch, admired the yellow rattle, the eyebright, the yellow and red bartsia. She produced a vintage bill hook, sourced at a car boot sale, and proceeded to slash at tufts of too-rich grass that was threatening to swamp our little meadow patch. The energy! We were advised to collect the seed of oxeye daisy, self-heal, birdsfoot trefoil and red clover all growing nearby to add to the meadow mix. There was some talk of a goat to graze the rich grass but I rather baulked at that. I do not trust goats. It is not so long ago that we tried to help some folk whose goat had escaped on to our road. To this day I don't know if they ever found it again.

Apart from the slashing and consulting, Rachael had something else for us. A moth trap, on loan for a while. We are very excited. We'll set it up tonight and see what happens.

Maybe we'll collect one of these,

Drinker moth sitting on an egg box, collected by Rachael the previous night.

Or one of these,

Burnished brass moth