At 23.15 orion lay to the south and the plough to the north east. The moon cast a silvery light through air and water from the western sky. Its cool shimmering, interrupted by the sodium glow from the Isle of Wight and a tiny LED brightness from a WIFI transmitter, sending this message out to the world.
A very lethargic soldier beetle was drawn into the egg yesterday night by the light of my lap top monitor were it sat for a while before scooting off. Today I found it resting on the back of a drawing board , just above the crescent moon. There are over 50 varieties of this creature that make their homes in the UK and got their name from a red backed variety that looked like a red coat (soldier). I am not sure which this is, but presumably it likes damp marsh environs.
My lap top screen is a frequent abode for night creatures and the lacewing below has just come in, looking for a place to hibernate for the winter. More worrying was the critter that got beneath the screen and was wondering about in pixel land a few weeks ago.
Please note that this post was prepared on November 5th and is posted late due to a lack of power in the Egg.
On returning to the Egg after a spot of leave, the only visible effect of the recent storm winds is a much higher tide line than that predicted in the published tables. The straw coloured remains of dead spartina grasses and other detritus form a heavily drawn streak on the grass near the top of the embankment where the Egg is tethered.
I will explore more after sunrise tomorrow. For now the Beadle is retiring to his bed as the batteries are drained and the solar power has failed after just half an hour of charging my phone (another result of the shortening days and a consequence of running the webcams 24/7). The WIFI is of course down too and my 3g network will not load images; so these words are the only possible picture I can post on this dark, damp night.
Predicted wild weather met the Egg this week. According to the Met Office, south westerly winds gusted at up to 99mph over the Needles Old Battery on the Isle of Wight, just across the Solent. Alex Fogarty, who works for Wightlink Ferries, said: “We had probably the hairiest night since I’ve worked for Wightlink… At about five o’clock this morning we had the full force 11 gusting hurricane-force winds.”*
My namesake JMW Turner, told how he was strapped to the mast of a ship to better experience such a storm, but I had to make do with two live webcams, as I am currently spending a few days on leave.
The Egg is only afloat for about five hours in twenty four and this, combined with an aerodynamic shape, very sheltered position and secure mooring (though I may need another rope along the dotted line below) allowed it to comfortably ride out the storm.
* http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/uk-england-hampshire-24700370 >
Spiders are attempting to make a home beside me inside the Egg. While I have been considering whether I should catch a mullet at high water, they have cast their own very fine nets to snare tiny flies around the edges of my sky light. They are keeping well hidden though, and I only see their finely spun lines against the sky. I look forward to saying hello.
Wind and the high spring tides around tonight’s full moon, combined to push the Egg toward the shore and my floating dock up and over a shrinking riverbank. The lower part of the door now catches on a stanchion and makes getting out a bit of a chore. At the next high water in about three hours time, I will try pushing the Egg toward its correct mooring… at least there should be good night light to work by. The action can always be observed 24/7 on two live webcams at www.exburyegg.org
Five hours ago, video journalist John Galliver’s four minute film about my life in the Egg went live. It is called ‘The man who lives in an egg’ and has been made as part of a series called ‘Real Time’ for the BBC News website. Please do watch it on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24574082
Rock and roll is today’s soundtrack as the Egg is pushed and tugged by cool blustery winds. I am tucked up inside, drawing an oak leaf with clusters of small circular raised discs on the underside that look like tiny flying saucers. The internet informs me that these are ‘jumping oak galls’ (or spangle galls) and each one has the larva of a small stingless wasp tucked up inside too. They usually detach themselves from the leaf and jump like mexican jumping beans upon hitting the ground – just a few centimetres to carry them off into leaf litter where they pupate. I am folding my leaf into a small specimen container in case I can observe an emerging wasp next April.
Spangle galls at 200 times magnification.
The yellow underwing (Noctua Pronuba) is abundant in Hampshire and enjoys a wide range of habitats from garden to grassland, to moorland and wood – this one appeared to be assessing the interior of my battery box as a new home. I found him after a power cut, when I went to check on the flow of energy from the solar array to the two large batteries deployed to store it. As hours in the sun are increasingly outweighed by those in darkness, I sense I will need to really eke out the flow of electrons
Traffic lights on the charge controller looking more positive, after two days stuck in the red.
The dignity of the Beadle’s outward aspect was maintained on Monday when Daniel came from Lymington to cut my hair. He is now hairdresser to the Egg and I hope he will be able to return in the Winter. Some of the saved grey clippings will provide samples needed to mix with a blackberry and Lye mixture which in the Seventeenth Century was identified as the essential element of a permanent black hair dye. I shall experiment…
The Exbury Egg 