The Legend of the Christmas Moth

There's not going to be anything flying tonight apart from the odd drowsy Winter Moth and possibly flights of angels. So here's something different, inspired (if that's the right word) by my debut in a Nativity Play this year at the age of 63 as a shepherd.  (I was too badly-behaved to be picked at school)

Before the shepherds had left their flocks

Or the Wise Men breasted the hill

Which looks down on the place where Jesus was born,

There was someone else. On the sill

Of the Bethlehem stable there perched a moth

(Cymbalophora oertzeni)

And along with a spider - top right - he first

Saw Joseph on bended knee

Raptly looking at Mary his wife

And the baby so strangely born

As a model of how we should lead our lives

On that first dark Christmas morn.

So whether you're man (or woman) or moth

Here's wishing you joy and good cheer

And remember to log on when Martin's Moths

Starts again in April next year.

Merry Christmas one and all and all the very best for 2014!