Fabulous Fluorescence

What a wonderful surprise! This caterpillar that I came across when I was removing dead leaves from my bergenia is the larva of the Pale Tussock Moth (Calliteara pudibunda). It's a first for me, so I was extremely excited and rushed in to find my camera!

As it rolled into a ball, I picked it up on a leaf, in case its extremely long hairs might cause an allergic reaction. Seems this was a sensible precaution, as I've read that hop-pickers frequently came across these, which they dubbed 'hop dogs', and did indeed suffer an allergic response.

Apparently, they're not uncommon in southern England, but I've never seen one before. The other creatures that my dead-heading (of marjoram and giant daisies) brought to the surface were lots of tiny ladybirds. I've left a few deadheads and dry woody stems for them to hide in again.

Thought this would be a perfect find for Tiny Tuesday, but the challenge today is a black-and-white photo, as I couldn't bear to waste this gorgeous, almost fluorscent, yellow.

Thank you so much for your generous starry, hearty responses to my Sapphire Anniversary blip, and also for wishing me a good night's sleep yesterday. It was a strange night of sleeping in bursts. Was asleep (unusually) by 10pm. Slept for 2 hours; awake for 1.5 hours; slept for 3.5 hours; awake for 1 hour; asleep for 2 hours; awake. Weird. But sleep, so I'm not complaining - it all added up to nearly 7.5 hours!