Hornet Clearwing

Somehow I didn't get around to taking any photographs yesterday - dull weather and an urgent report rather sapped my photographic mojo. But I dropped in to see Ben and Sarah - they've already finished the living room which looks amazing - a feature wall with some jazzy retro wallpaper in shades of orange has really livened it up. In the evening we went out for a meal at East - superb as ever!

This morning Pete and I made a third visit to fields at Splash Lane Castor which we're surveying for Castor Parish Council as part of their Parish Nature Recovery plan. Although the main grass field had been mown, the hedges and trees, as well as tall herbaceous vegetation along Splash Lane, yielded a good range of insect life, including some scarce species.

Perhaps the most impressive insect of the day was a Hornet Clearwing, associated with White Poplar on the site boundary. This spectacular moth, which is an excellent wasp mimic, is Nationally Scarce, mainly found in southern and eastern England, East Anglia and the Midlands. The larvae feed inside the poplar trunks and emerge from a hole in the base, normally in June.

In the afternoon I made a passionfruit and white chocolate cake ready for Ben's birthday meal - his 25th certainly seems to be extending for a long time. It's hard to believe that it's really 25 years since he was born upstairs, after a very peaceful home birth with a wonderful midwife, involving tea, toast, perambulations round the garden and foot massages. So much better than the two hospital births I'd experienced previously...