Martin's Moths: Bye bye Bertha

Monday, 11 August 2014

Bye bye Bertha

If anyone spotted a man in purple shorts and a purple sweater (check out this poem on that score), picking dandelions out of cracks in the pavement of Oxford High Street yesterday, it was me. The operation was stage two of my rescue of the caterpillar above - a Buff Tip larva I think - from certain death by trying to cross the jam-packed Botley Road.

I intercepted it with my leaflet on interesting trees in Oxford and slid it into the only box I had which was a puncture repair kit just bought from the excellent bike shop, Warlands. This too much resembled a solitary confinement cell for my liking, so I stopped at Ryman's on the way to meet Penny for lunch and bought a couple of small plastic boxes for £2.99. Their label claimed that they were 'Made with love' - love being represented by a large red heart.

If you were having lunch in the Quod brasserie and noticed another man in purple shorts sat at the bar and surreptitiously doing things with plastic boxes and leaves, that was also me. Then Penny arrived; and talking of her, our continuing marathon sorting of our possessions post-move turned up this yesterday.

It's an excellent series of promotional cards which Penny collected as a small girl; rather more improving than the football stars and TV characters which tend to be the subject of similar promotions nowadays. These were offered in the mid-1950s by Lifeguard Products Ltd, makers of Lifeguard Disinfectant, a collection of 25 butterflies which was followed by a similar set of 25 fishes.

On we go, meanwhile, with my Great Moth Catch-Up and another long procession of recent arivals with my IDs, some definite, others tentative, yet others simply my best guess. As always, I would be very grateful for correction or confirmation from kind readers with time.