Neil Gits A Red Admiral

I can hardly be descirbed as a person who is “at one with nature”. Yes, I like a jolly good walk in the fresh air, but the plants, insects, birds & flowers encountered along the way are not the main attraction for me. I am certainly not an expert on butterflies, although much to mine and my team’s surprise, I recently got us two points on a question about a certain species at a quiz night ! However, the most common butterfly in the UK, the Red Admiral, has stuck with me since school days …

A couple of weeks back at the peak of the heatwave, with every window in the house open all day, I went upstairs a couple of hours before bedtime and caught a glance of something hanging onto the side of one of my record shelves in the spare bedroom. It looked like a big black moth and it was still there in the same position when I retired for the night. It wasn’t doing any harm so I left it alone and when I got up in the morning it was still there, exactly as I left it, so I opened the windows again and assumed it would leave. But it didn’t ! It just sat there all day !

Come late afternoon, now about 20 hours since discovering it, I felt action needed to be taken ! I certainly wasn’t going to kill it (it might be dead already I deduced, hence it’s lack of movement !) so I made sure the nearby bathroom window was open wide and gave it a gentle poke, half expecting it to fall to the floor for disposal. But no! It sprang into life, opening up it’s beautiful previously unseen black orange & white wings revealing itself to be a Red Admiral and fluttered off into the garden again. I am not sure how or why it could hang on to my shelving at 90 degrees to the floor for nearly a whole day and night, but indeed it did … and I’ve not seen it … or a close relative …. since!

Apologies if you heard that story before on a recent show, but I am getting thin on ideas for these legendary blogs ! Back to the music and if you’ve missed today’s ‘Repeat Play’ of the show, here are the tracks that I played last Monday, available to “Listen Again” to elsewhere on this wbsite anytime you like in the next 28 days ….

The Tunes – Monday 9th September 2024

Earth Wind & Fire – September
Brass Construction – Can You See The Light
Dee Dee Simon – The Player (Georgie B Remix)
Trammps – Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart
Trammps – Sixty Minute Man
Mica Paris – Nothing Hits Your Heart Like Soul Music
Jarrod Lawson & Raquel Rodriguez – Next Move
William Bell – Tryin’ To Love Two
Chuck Cissel – Cisselin’ Hot
Level 42 – Micro Kid
Rockwell – Somebody’s Watching Me (Groovefunkel Remix)
Shakatak – Takin’ Off
Dee C Lee – Don’t Forget About Love
Lionel Richie – Tell Me
Larry Graham – Sooner Or Later
David Joseph – You Can’t Hide Your Love
Vince Broomfield – Let Me Come Home With You
Windy Karigianes – Sad Songs
Nat King Cole – When I Fall In Love
David Ruffin – I Want You Back
Faith Hope & Charity – To Each His Own
Three Degrees – Take Good Care Of Yourself
Ronny Jordan – After Hours

Feel free to get in touch with your soulful request or just for a mention on the show – put a post on “The Old Gits Soul Show” page on Facebook, text (01268)833978 or message me via e-mail : [email protected].

The Old Gits Soul Show is broadcast LIVE from 7pm–9pm every Monday, repeated on Saturday evening from 5pm–7pm, on Gateway 97.8FM in Basildon & East Thurrock and available nationally via the Radio Player at Sky TV as well as online via www.gateway978.com You can listen on your smart speaker or your phone too … plus you can hear it again anytime you like via the “Listen Again” button on the Gateway website – just search “Cool Soul” !