On orange

There was a deep orange stripe in the sky to the east as I walked down the hill at 7 o'clock this morning. Sitting on the bus a little later I noticed the perfectly and naturally arranged orange hair of a young man in front of me around his perfectly placed crown. I have a double crown so my hair is confused!

Later, while hedge hacking, I enjoyed the orange foliage of a large and large-leaved cotoneaster. It is springing up quite a lot here in the last few years, presumably spread by birds who eat the berries. Although I think the shrubs are invasive non-natives, they are also rather handsome at this time of year. The first one is on the lane below the cottage next door and the second is in next-door's garden. There is also one on the field side of our south fence. They cheer up dull days.

The twenty-plumed moth, or one of its relations, is still around. If it is the same one, which apparently it could be, it has now been in the house for over a month. I'm a little bit puzzled by the description in that link. It says the wings are each made up of six 'feathers', but if you actually count the quills there are ten for each wing which, given its name, Twenty-plumed moth, is what you'd expect. Hexadactyla refers to its six insect legs. I guess the fact that the scientific binomial and the English name do not actually 'match' has caused some confusion. Here it is on an orange bit of wall.

Apparently honeysuckle is this moth's foodplant. The BoggyBrae has masses of honeysuckle growing around and up various trees and over stumps. Now I need to find out what the caterpillars look like.