Tattoodave

I'm now in Spain and Starbucks are rare, Spanish coffee is equally poor, so I'm living caffeine free and enjoying life. Try giving it up yourself, it's a drug, and not mine of preference

I went into a Starbucks in South Kensington on a Sunday morning after the 100 club allnighter, don't remember the music, just remember pouring the coffee in the gutter as it was crap

I'm sure you mean whippets

Parakeets, there's large colonies throughout the London parks, mostly ring necked parakeets I think

Thanks Suz, moths aren't my speciality. Dave

Looks like an harvestman spider, though don't quote me, Dave

Looks like a Burnet Moth Steve, though I could be wrong. Dave

Top one is Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagalis arvensis), next is the Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis), next is Vipers Bugloss (Echium vulgare), the last could be more pyramidal orchids, doesn't enlarge enough to be certain. Dave

You're right about the Speckled Wood, the Blue one could be a Common Blue, but looks ragged, so hard to say, the last is a Red Admiral, quite common that one and not difficult Dave

I'll lend a hand if need be with the orchids Dave

The Crown Four - Birth Of A Playboy, Love For My Girl

Welcome back Steve, hope you got some good Puffin shots. Dave

This is one of the Spanish foxgloves, the other two native species have eluded me thus far

Just some of the problems faced while trying to identify plants, these are all parasitic, and it helps to identify the host plant mostly, but they still leave me foxed

I'm banned from the sorting office after a big bust up with one of the post office robbers (sorry employees, almost put workers, and that would have been wrong in his case, though not all), though strangely I've not had to pay import duty or handling fees since

I know it might sound a bit evil, but if the record then becomes negative equity, ie not worth enough to be worth paying the import duty, just ignore the C&E demand and they will ship it back to the seller, surface mail. You then tell ebay it never arrived and get a refund eventually. It sounds as if it was an expensive record to have cost $50 postage, unless you've been charged customs prepaid from the states and not got the service. I resent having to pay the Post Office £8 handling fee, having seen how they handle stuff, even when marked FRAGILE

They are similar but the Spanish has a cream band on the underwing, an easily overlooked detail, I had to look in a reference book.

Hi again Suz, never seen it here, but supposedly grows on Sierra Nevada in damp grassy places, there's a poster with an area full of them, it's a bit too warm here, it grows also in the Pyrenees and the Massif Central. Dave

Hello Suz, it's a different one, Gatekeeper is Pyronia tithonus, Spanish Gatekeeper is Pyronia bathseba. Dave

Wall Brown Small Skipper Grizzled Skipper Male Cleopatra (Cleopatrick lol) the only ones that stayed still long enough

You get Spanish Gatekeeper butterflies in Teesdale? Probably from the Armada if you do. Yellow rattle is here too, though red nettle not

Euphorbia serrata Common Centaury Leuzia Spanish flora is the most diverse in Europe, but some are very difficult to identify, when I post things it's because I'm pretty certain I've identified them, if you could see the file of unidentified plants you'd cry, and I have a degree in Botany

Strangely my only thought was "Keb had hair"

me neither, short attention span these days, I just can't cope with directions, instructions or even names. I'd sooner dance like a gurning knobhead anyway, and bytheway, I'm usually the only one with a beard doing it, so you can't miss me

Common Blue Dark Green Fritillary Spanish Gatekeeper Plant wise a fairly poor day but for the Epipactis, but the butterflies were in abundance, lots too busy to photograph or identify.