Sunday, July 27, 1980

Sunday July 27th

As Grant Riley would put it – a negative day. I did nothing worth mentioning all day. Mum and Dad went out for a run at midday leaving Andrew and I to watch the Olympics all afternoon (Britain won a few medals again, mainly bronzes).

After watching Brendan Foster come 11th out of 15 in the 10,000 m race, we had tea and in the evening I didn’t do a thing.

The only really profitable thing to emerge from today was my moth attracting experiment. Using the brown sugar I acquired yesterday and black treacle and one teaspoonful of rum I mixed a lethal mixture. Dad seemed greatly interested and in the gathering gloom we daubed (via brush) the potion onto four separate locations – the big fir tree, the cherry tree, the weeping willow and a bush over in the corner by the greenhouse. We must’ve looked strange wandering around in the dark, paintbrush at the ready. I was glad to see that there were many moths flitting and drifting over and among the trees and plants. One I saw was enormous – at least 3 inches across the wings – but it was too far away to catch. Unfortunately, my mixture seemed to repel moths rather than attract them because not one settled. If I had had a net I could’ve swept them down and caught them. I came in at elevenish after wandering around, watching Green lacewings, spiders, and hundreds of moths yet unable to identify a single one (except the lacewings). My fascination with entomology is still strong and perhaps I could buy some tackle and take it up seriously.

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