Evil Eye Curiosities

02/06/2026

A little birthday surprise today. My Elephant Hawk Moth eggs have started hatching.
Elephant Hawk Moths are my favorite native moth!

27/05/2026

Sometimes the warm weather wakes up even the cocoons you thought were probably dead. Hello beautiful.

25/05/2026

I made the decision this spring to get myself a moth trap. I thought about it last year and just never did... and I am so glad i did! Its great to get a little sneak peek into who's sneaking about in the dead of night when we are all asleep!

The may beetles (cockchafers) are out in force, lots of small beautiful moths - weve had treble lines, pale prominent, buff ermine, scored wing, muslin moth amd manu more! Large numbers of beautiful pale tussock moths, but the absolute star of the show for me had to be the gorgeous and huge Poplar hawk moth - both species i know visit the garden as I find the caterpillars every year but had never actually seen either of their moths in the garden! Its great to know they are about already and hopefully laying eggs!

Hopefully this lovely warm weather holds out and we start to see lots more amazing moths showing up! I know a lot of folks have said their light traps have been quiet compared to previous years, so hopefully things will start to pick up now!

18/05/2026

Sometimes there are unexpected surprises in the garden. While helping my new neighbour in his garden he was talking about getting rid of an old chimney pot thats at the bottom of the garden. There was a bowl sat on top of it. It was dirty. He lifted it off to shake the bird poo out, and to our surprise right in the bottom of the chimney pot was blue tit nest! The chimney pot is now staying put even after they are done using it, as it looks like this isnt the first time a nest has been made in there!

18/05/2026

Its not all moths and butterflies here... sometimes other little critters stop by to say hello.
This little cutie is a May Beetle!

15/05/2026

Check out this awesome giveaway by Bramble Berry Markets ! Make sure you enter for your chance to win a hamper full of lovely goodies from a ton of amazing small businesses!

And yep... there's a framed butterfly from me in there too! 😁

✨️ O R I G I N A L ✨️ P O S T ✨️
✨️G✨️I✨️V✨️E✨️A✨️W✨️A✨️Y✨️

✨ We’re so close to 3,000 followers! ✨

To celebrate, we’ve put together something really special with the help of our wonderful makers!

Over 20 small businesses from our markets have kindly donated prizes and we’ve created a beautiful hamper filled with handmade treats, artisan finds and lovely goodies from talented local makers!

We’ll be sharing more of what’s inside over the next couple of weeks!

To be in with a chance of winning:
🤍 Follow our page
🤍 Like this post
🤍 Tag 3 friends who love supporting small businesses

The winner will be announced at our Pickering market on Saturday 30th May and the hamper will be available to collect from any of our markets in Pickering, Thornton-Le-Dale and Haxby or The Stitching Lady shop in Scarborough.

Thank you so much for supporting Bramble Berry Markets and all the amazing independent businesses that trade with us! We couldn’t do it without you! 🤩

13/05/2026

Those colours! I really do love our natives!

06/05/2026

An unexpected surprise. My cinnabar moths have laid some eggs! After a quick scout around the garden to see if any Ragwort or Groundsel was starting to grow theres lots popping up in the front garden so we are good for food! Hopefully see some little caterpillars soon!

03/05/2026

If I was to create some bug lovers bundles that looked like this, would that be something you guys would be interested in?

02/05/2026

Caterpillars really are such a joy! They bring back some kind of childhood nostalgia of searching for bugs in the garden (at 36, something i still frequently do).

Only you get to being an adult and realise you can raise all sorts of lovely species yourself - be it our beautiful natives who these days, are often struggling with habitat loss or amazing species from over seas.

Remember here in the UK - as much as you hate the nettles and will be wanting to remove them from your garden they are a vital food source for some of our natives: Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell and Painted Lady all heavily rely on nettle to lay their eggs and for their caterpillars to feed... so try and look at the nettles from a different perspective this year!

Pictured: Actias selene (Indian Moon Moth) caterpillar.