Coincidence time again

Here is my son's Charles Darwin doll (no, no, we weren't that much of pushy parents, it's a fairly recent joke). He's sitting on the summit of Green Crag above Boot in Eskdale, whence this post comes. It seems a bit improbable, surrounded by vast mountains and without a peep of phone connection, but wifi is penetrating right into the kitchen of the farmhouse we're staying in, which was built in 1703. I can this bring you news of another glorious date match, like the Blair's Shoulder Knots and Black Rustics which faithfully . Like Darwin, I am slowly building up a scientific case on moths' flying seasons, not that it will be news to any scientists.

Anyway, on the way up Green Crag, which is a very excellent little mountain with interesting approaches and descent up two different 'peat roads', used for collecting fuel with carts, we found three of these caterpillars. Guess what, in the first week of October last year, we did the same thing on the Floutern Pass which connects Ennerdale, where we were staying at the time, to Buttermere. Provided that no one treads on it, it will turn into a Fox Moth, as pictured here. The caterpillars seem to like boggy uplands. As I noted last year, Arthur Ransome collected them as a boy on the fells and hatched the moths. The famous Gipsy Moth biplane also had a relative called the Fox Moth, shown here in action for Australia's flying doctor service.