Dominic Collins

Thanks Ruth. You may yet live to regret that encoursgement 😁

From the Wall of Sound to the Cathedral of Sound. I hear they were handing out earplugs to the attendees.

My Bloody Valentine - 'Soon', Wembley OVO Arena, 25/11/2025

Take a look at this video, 'my bloody valentine live 2025' share.google/EiC2LBYJmlxe...

First up - 'Trinidad' by Geese.

A man, driving we assume, Tom Yorkes about how hard he's trying. Perhaps he's on his way to work. Perhaps he's idling on a Saturday afternoon
But then he realises:
"There's a bomb in my car!!!"
and things, well, develop from there.

share.google/Nsjm8P6ZuimR...

Alright there people. Am excited to announce the launch on this my Bluesky channel of "My Song of the Week", each filtered through the battered box of my sensibility and having taken up residence in my mind's ear, for good reasons only, during the previous 7-day period. No <likes> necessary.

That it is. That it, er, is 🫡

Oh please do. It should be near the top of your probably long list of things to revisit.

Ah God - it's a gem. I could expound at length on its many, many wonderfulnesses, but won't. All I'd say is - if the other half isn't interested, watch it without him.

Love that photo, Ruth. And your wondering about the gold reminds me of The Detectorists (which perhaps it was meant to).

NFG Macros from the first 6 months of trapping in 2025, SE Hants. A combination of the most wanted, best looking and most surprising. A welcome distraction from sorting photos, 800 deleted today, still another 9000ish to go 🫣😬 #teammoth

NFG Micros from the first 6 months of trapping in 2025, SE Hants. A combination of the most wanted, best looking and most surprising. I’ve also redone yesterday’s macro collage with the correct moth in the top right. Technically there’s also a micro in it, but it’s an ‘honorary’ macro 🤔 #teammoth

Not as pretty as the macros, but some significant micro records from the garden this year.

Cadra figulilella (Raisin Moth) and Phycitodes saxicola (Lesser Clouded Knot-horn) both new for VC39, with at least four specimens of the latter recorded & confirmed by gen det.

#TeamMoth

Twin-spotted Wainscot & Privet Hawk-moth both new for SJ84. Juniper Pug was one of four NFG pug species this year, along Dwarf, Haworth’s and Cypress. 26 species of pug now recorded in the garden!

And a few more of the macro NFGs from the garden this year, here in North Staffordshire.
A few details in ALT text.

#TeamMoth

Small Marbled was the second for VC39, beaten to the first by 48 hours! Two Four-spotted Footman arrived in June, the first of which was a joint-second for VC39. Ni Moth was the third for VC39, all three arriving within a week of each other. Oblique Carpet was new for SJ84. Bedstraw Hawk-moth speaks for itself 😁

It’s freezing cold & I’m bored. So here’s a selection of the 34 macro NFGs from this year’s efforts in the garden. A few details in ALT text.
Micros to follow in a separate post!

A total of 95 NFGs pushed the garden total up to 603. A pretty crazy year all round.

#TeamMoth

😁 I do, but her powers are exerted only on behalf of my interlocutor. Makes me worth talking to, though.

And there's more. Man, a man's magnanimity only stretches so far.

Jeez, just look at this stuff.

Major AI conference flooded with peer reviews written fully by AI Controversy has erupted after 21% of manuscript reviews for an international AI conference were found to be generated by artificial intelligence.

Oh dear. Nice irony though.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Fifteen of the sixteen* December Moths lured to my trap last night by a combination of UV light and female pheromones. Certainly a record for me. In addition: 1 Mottled Umber, 1 Feathered Thorn and 2 LBAMs.

*I'm afraid the 16th was taken by a spider and crudely taxidermied.

#TeamMoth

Floodwater along the valley bottom early this p.m. A bitter westerly blew up and blunderbussed me with hail. Pretty quiet bird-wise: 35 Snipe, 10 Lapwing, 22 Teal, 24 Fieldfare, 11 Redwing plus 6 Snipe & the long-staying Cormorant (a rarity) at the Ashes Pool. Song & Mistle Thrushes singing too. 🪶

Ah - excellent!

What Is Steve Witkoff Trying to Do? Trump’s envoy isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin and prolonging the war.

Steve Witkoff isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin and prolonging the war
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

The war will end when Russia stops fighting. Therefore, pressure has to be put on Russia, so that they stop believing that they will win. Why is that so hard to understand?

"a Russian military victory in Ukraine is not inevitable, and a rapid Russian seizure of the rest of Donetsk Oblast is not imminent"
and the US officials who keep saying so are repeating Russian propaganda

Well worth an hour of your time if you want to understand the latest travesty of a Ukrainian "peace process" and what happens when Trump's son-in-law (no other qualification) and a strip-mall developer (Steve Witkoff) decide to do "diplomacy" with the head of a Russian sovereign wealth fund.

Definitely follow this important reporting. And listen to the long, funny, revealing conversation Michael and I had on Thinking Live:
snyder.substack.com/p/oligarchs-...

😄 Quite so.

Yes! I've come out of retirement for (probably) this night only on account of the mild weather, and because last night's fluky S. Umber has given me the appetite for moth I've lacked over the last few weeks. 3/4 Decs (though one is being sucked dry by a spider) and 2 LBAMs to show for it so far.

Apologies Dave. It's all SJT's fault. He's been whispering in my ear this week like a mothing Grima Wormtongue.

😁 Ha! Well, as you now know - I might be coming out of retirement tonight. As you've been telling me, at length, and probably repeatedly - the conditions tonight are looking good. I might just have one more fluke in me before calling it a year for the second and probably final time 😁

Scarce Umber, last seen in 2022. Incidentally - for those of you not familiar with my methods and machinations - the anglepoise actinic is a reading lamp I've screwed a 20W actinic bulb into and which can then be angled such that the business end shines out into the garden.

I'd all but retired from mothing for the year. My traps were decomissioned. Then an hour ago I remembered that last night, on a whim, I'd flicked on the anglepoise actinic sometime after 1 a.m. And there, stickered on the outside of the glass above the still-lit lamp was this moth. #TeamMoth