Buttering Flies

Insect vision hacks, rapid-fire photography, some beautiful books and the world of type, calligraphy and cartography again.

Insects of all kinds get stuck in the greenhouse, even with the door and vents wide open. There's a particular signal they're reading from the lines of the greenhouse that means they go towards a bit with glass rather than the bit without glass. I found that when I was wearing a white shirt and stood just a little bit outside the door then the whole flying menagerie would find its way out instantly. None of them landed on me, they just came close then straight up. So there's a hack of arthropod visual systems for you to try.

Today, when I wasn't wearing a white shirt there was a cabbage white fluttering against the glass so I took some photos to sketch from (above) and then gently picked it up and let it out. Yay for the iPhone burst mode.

In more arthropod news, we found an elephant hawk moth caterpillar munching the grass the other day so the adult we saw a few weeks ago might well have been the parent. We're trying to encourage wildlife in the garden so this is good.

I got a couple of books illustrated by Matthew Forsythe this week, The Gold Leaf and The Brilliant Deep. I love how they're so painterly and bright but he can keep it all crisp and graphic, the contrast of colour really draws me in. I also want to get Pokko and The Drum when it's out. This is not a paid advert btw.

Wondering about resurrecting The Ministry of Type. I got a bit disillusioned by that whole world for a while, a lot of the friendliness and conversational openness seemed to have gone away, but perhaps I've now blocked the right people (or they've moved on to new victims) and it seems more of an interesting place again. Or maybe I was just in a funk and I've got over myself. Monotype selling itself was a surprise and also not a surprise, but still disappointing. I hope everyone who still works there is going to be OK.