The other day we went for a stroll along the river and saw a ghostly tree. It stood out like a sore thumb around the rich, green foliage: it was completely white with no leaves.
We walked closer trying to find out what it was: was it an art statement or maybe an act of vandalism? We were busy discussing various possibilities but as we got closer, we fell completely silent.
The tree was covered in a web of white silky strands. And it was alive.
It was alive in more than one sense of the word. It was alive with tiny caterpillars crawling all over it. The grass area surrounding the tree was yellow – that is, the part of the lawn which was infected by caterpillars. Tent caterpillars, to be precise.
The local birds were quite enamoured by this tree and happily swooped down for an extra juicy caterpillar or two whilst completely ignoring the two foolish humans below. One bullfinch even posed for a photo or two whilst enjoying the caterpillar buffet.
And at home the internet provided us with answers and I realised that things could be a lot creepier than just a single ghost tree down by the river.
Ewww, ewww, ewww.
I wonder if they could ever have a Doctor Who villain based on them, where they could team up with the Racnoss and cause all manner of hellishness.
http://www.franzferdinand.co.uk/ – new typeface (nnngh, not convinced) but are they channelling Faber Press?
Just down by the old mill in case you feel like checking it out for yourself. or maybe you don’t ;)
F&F? Hmm.. they don’t tend to use caps and they have a more serifed typeface iirc. But we’ll have a natter about that.
That tree had me really freaked out before I even looked at the bike one! I’ve never heard of these creatures in my life before, they’re the stuff of nightmares. x K
According to my partner, it does look as though the caterpillars have either a) run out of food or b) pupated because the tree doesn’t look as dramatic as before (I haven’t been able to check it out myself).
I got *very* freaked when I saw the bike photo. Eeeeeew!