A Coincidence

One of the best things my parents ever did for me was give me a love of reading. I have books I was given when I was three years old, and although I don't read them 5 times a day as I did back then, they are still in my possession.

When we kids were older, Mum and Dad used to give us enough money at the start of each school holiday to buy a Puffin paperback. My favourite genre was history based fiction, whether it be ancient, medieval, or even 1950's - which (with apologies to some of our readers) I also used to think of as the olden days.

Although I no longer have most of those books, I remember them fondly, particularly the books of Geoffrey Trease. One I struggled to remember the name of was "The Red Towers of Granada" which I found recently and re-read on the internet archive. 

This led me on a bit of a reading blitz, and it has to be said that the books have stood the test of time. 

However, that isn't really what this blog is about (or maybe it is, who knows). The books on the internet archive are scanned copies of ex-library books, and it's fascinating where the books come from. One of the books I read, "Escape to King Alfred" - the American title of "Mist over Athelney" (a cracking good read, btw) - had a stamp on the title page that is a fascinating and a remarkable coincidence.

Back in November 2019 we met Sally and Gary from the USA, who must have gone to the Châteauroux Dépendent School when their father was posted to the NATO Air Force base at Châteauroux.

I wonder if either of them read this book, which apparently made its way back to the US when the France withdrew from NATO and the American based closed in 1967.

The Sand Dwellers

Any patch of sand in a sunny spot is likely to have residents, especially if it is near a patch of willow. At this time of year, look out for solitary bees, which ironically, may form large colonies in suitable sandy habitats. You may spot these three species in particular:

Grey-backed Mining Bee nest.

Grey-backed Mining Bee Andrena vaga -- a large shining black mining bee with lots of buffy grey 'fur' on the thorax. Abundant and specialising in willow, collecting the bright yellow pollen to store away in its nest hole to feed its larvae. 

Female Grey-backed Mining Bees, with and without pollen loads.

Vernal Colletes bee Colletes cunicularius -- a large dark brown bee with dense tawny 'fur' on the thorax. They produce a waterproofing substance from a gland in their abdomen that they smear on the inside of the underground brood cells that they dig. Colletes can be identified by a distinctive S shaped vein on their wing.

Vernal Colletes.

Lathbury's Nomad Bee Nomada lathuriana -- a parasite of Grey-backed Mining Bees. They have a three coloured abdomen and tawny hairs on the abdomen. The nomad bee lays its egg in the nest of the mining bee and its larvae hatch first. They then eat the mining bee egg and its stock of pollen.

Lathbury's Nomad Bee.

All photographed in early April 2023 in the same few metres of compacted sandy soil on the island in the Loire at Amboise.