Could it get worse...?

Friday night, which would have been the preferred trapping night, was wet, so had to defer to the Saturday night, which was forecast to be cloudy and dry.  First of all while loading up, I dropped a can of drink that punctured, spraying all over my trousers and the car.  Kilburn woods was favourite for the night, so duly set off and set up 3 traps spread over a couple of 10 km squares.  All parked up, trying to get a few ZZZ's, and awoken at 0215 by rain on the windscreen.  Panic!  With two unprotected bulbs including a very hot 160MVB, it was a rush to list and identify as many moths as possible, while trying to keep the rain off.  Fortunately the heavy shower passed over, but I still had to get all the kit away, while recording as much as possible.  The micros were a bit neglected other than a handful of specimens to photo.

Having got to the second location, I find the actinic light dead...had I really forgotten to top up the battery...?  It could only have just happened as there were still plenty of moths in the trap.  The rain started again, and on emptying the trap, I spot a large moth on the trap wall.  Half identifying it in my mind, I consider going back to the car to get a larger pot, but decided to squeeze it into one of the regular tubes.  While trying to get the lid on, I dropped it, and the beastie escaped!  I checked Townsend and Waring, and zeroed in a Tissue...a new one for me.

Eventually got to bed at 0430, only to be up again at 0800 taking #1 daughter on an endurance ride.  We got to the venue, avoiding Sutton Bank, got the horse vetted, all tacked up and of she went.  Before meeting up at checkpoint 2, had a couple of calls saying she was lost...studied geography at school yet hopeless with maps....  Then the dreaded call that she was now completely lost and the horse was not moving at all well.  With the powers of deduction, I worked out where she was, helped by the fact that the position she described in Boltby Forest was somewhere I had set a couple of moth-traps in the past.  So, picked up the trailer, rescued horse and daughter, and abandoned the rest of the ride.  Retired hurt, we set off home, then after a short way heard a commotion in the trailer.  A bolt on the recently serviced partition had come undone, allowing the partition to drop down and frightened the horse, causing him to kick out and cut his leg.  We eventually reassembled the trailer, got things back together, the horse settled, and got back to the yard with no further incident.

On checking the feasibility of Tissue with Charlie, he advised only a couple of older records within the rough area, and without a photo or specimen not really an acceptable record.

So the story of the day is no rosette for not completing the course, and a probable goodie confined to the wastebin.  Such is life....