Hairy Caterpillar

I found this extremely hairy caterpillar this afternoon when I was picking raspberries. My thanks to Skev, who identified it as a buff ermine Spilosoma luteum caterpillar.

A single-animal stampede ....

I started digging the vegetable garden this afternoon but didn't get very far because I found this fine specimen of the centipede Haplophilus subterraneus curled up under a plant root. This is probably the longest garden species in Britain, although you wouldn't think so when it's coiled up in a ball like this.

When it unwound itself and began to run I'd estimate that it must have been close to three inches long. Ground-living centipedes have an aversion to light even though they have no eyes and this one instantly headed for a dark crevice (that's the head at the bottom). The last pair of legs are modified into touch-sensitive antennae-like structures that provide the animal with some information about what's going on way back in that final segment.

It's difficult to photograph these because they only come to rest when they are in contact with something above and below their body - when they are in a tunnel or under a stone for example. Despite their name, no centipede has exactly 100 legs. The books say this one has 83 pairs (seems reasonable, it was moving too fast to count them), so when it runs that's 166 feet stampeding - a wonderful feat of coordinating feet movements.

The 137th. Annual Eggleston Show

Eggleston, the last of the agricultural shows in my part of the Northern Pennines, is the subject of today's Guardian Country Diary. This year it moved to a new location at West Barnley, so the view from the commentary box, across the showground, extended all the way up the middle part of Teesdale to the fells on the horizon.

Perfect weather, with the sound of the Middleton and Teesdale Silver Band drifting across the events rings.

Judging the Highland cattle.

Some magnificent beasts ....

...... and a very young stockman .....

... who was a proud winner of a red first-prize rosette for his Highland calf.

I'm not sure what breed of sheep this is but the coat colour is very unusual.

Waiting for the start of the sheep judging which .....

... delivered a fine haul of winning rosettes.

A prize winning cockerel in the poultry tent .....

...... dahlias as big as a human head in the horticulture tent ....

... and, in the industry tent, the much-admired craft work of stick dressers, with walking stick handles carved in the form of .....

.... curlews, thistles .....

.... and leaping trout.

Only a second-place rosette for his Shetland pony, but the owner should have won a red rosette for that moustache.

Ponies and ponytails, perfectly groomed.