Incredible 
To think we’re systematically destroying the habitats for insects and animals is just so fucking depressing
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Amazing
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Love the sounds of appreciation from the guys taking it apart.
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Miriams creation, just needs the quilt backing and border. Did ask if this was for the landrover camper, sigh, apparently not.
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Plenty of leg ties
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That’s very nice indeed 
Arguable, but I’d long-since lost-track of racing yacht tech, so this thing strikes me as fucking amazing and rather elegant…
…albeit not quite so classically beautiful as this era -
Apparently, the modern ‘foiling’ yachts are closing-in on 100KPH / 60MPH!
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Since the mid 80s America’s Cup boat Australia II and it’s Ben Lexcen designed “winged” keel, tech on most elite classes of racing yachts has gone exponential.
So much so that they look less like yachts and more like planes. Unsurprisingly, Adrian Newey is involved in racing and design.
The modern Americas Cup is just amazing, would love to see it close up.
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I am sure the Americans regretted the abolition of the rule that stated that challenging boats had to sail to the venue,
That meant that the challenger had to build an ocean going yacht to get there and the Americans built a boat for sailing in light airs and sheltered waters.(They chose the venue)
Not suprisingly they retained the cup for a very long time until the rule was relaxed with the passing of the stunningly beautiful J Class yachts.
I loved the 12 metre design and saw a British challenger Lionheart up close match racing with a previous challenger in the Solent.
I was in Earls Court in 1983 when Australia II won the cup.
Three days for which I have very little memory
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Poplar hawk moth?
I think it’s a somewhat rainwashed* Catocala nupta - variously called ‘red underwing’ or ‘pink underwing’ - if you can get it to shift its wings the bright pinky-red colour of the underwings is a certain sign that it is one.
*Moths and butterflies that get caught out in bad weather or have a close-encounter with a predator can lose a lot of the colour and pattern from their wings, as they lose the tiny scales that give them most of those properties.
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Crested loopwheel eater.
Hopefully not a clothes moth
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Gone now it’s dark. Fascinating! Thanks for your help. 
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Gypsy?
I’m suspecting that this item (inside our garden shed) is or was the home of some kind of wasp/hornet. Quite small, golf ball sized & seemingly abandoned. Can anyone confirm what might have made it?
There have been a lot of notices around here about Asian Hornets this year but I’m yet to see one.
Could be a failed common wasp colony - they don’t always succeed and get fuckhuge.
I don’t (yet) know what Asian Hornet nests are like, but if they’re much like our native hornet, they’ll be deep inside the deepest, darkest crevice they can find, usually in a dead tree, and so not like this at-all.
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