On a (carpet) roll

One of the few shopping expeditions which sticks in my mind was to Boston Spa in the early days after we came to Leeds, where we bought a carpet from a very nice woman who was amazingly capable of hoisting heavy rolls of the stuff about in spite of her slender size. She would have made an ace firefighter.

Anyway, I hope she's enjoying a well-earned retirement now, reflecting back on all the wonderful but similar patterns she must have enjoyed examining on the eastern rugs and carpets in which she specialised. In just the same way, I am looking forward to having more time to sort out my carpets, the ones which are very abundant in the moth trap at the moment.

They are confusingly alike, especially for someone with my extensive criminal record of making errors; but I can say with certainty that the one at the top is a Green Carpet. It doesn't look as green in the photograph as it did in real, which further compounds my tendency to make mistakes. You can see a glorious, freshly-hatched Green Carpet a few posts back. Then, above, I think we have a Silver-ground Carpet...

...and, above again, here is a Flame Carpet. That's what I think anyway. Immediately below is another and rather better Silver-ground. But what is the penultimate one? A third Silver-ground? If so, it illustrates the way that patterning varies within a species, adding to my current frustration but future joy when I will sit beside the fireside for as long as my eyesight permits, happily trying to decide such things.

Just to press that point home, here in conclusion is another Flame Carpet, where the markings have begun to fade. Yet another source of Martin's Muddle.

Update: David's given me an excellent hand again - see comments - and the last but one is a Garden Carpet. So that's four different Carpets in one night, and there were quite a few of them.  I'm just heading out now, to turn on the light. Last night there was quite a lot of rain, fended off as usual by Mr and Mrs Robinson's amazingly simple but effective shield. But the prospects tonight are dry, if noticeably colder.