Flights of the butterfly

  • The Lonely Queen

    This is The Lonely Queen: I see her on my walk most mornings, standing tall, elegant, and solitary against the sky. She has seen years. She has seen hardship. Some of her limbs were cut away long ago and the scars have healed. I do not know how many centuries she has stood there. There…

  • Grasshopper Survivor

    This is a little grasshopper, sunning himself on the bonnet of my car. They’re harvesting hay from the watermeadow, so now he’s homeless. If you look closely, you’ll see he only has one back leg. Couple of weeks ago, I found him in my garage. Small, wounded and very bedraggled. I think I might have…

  • Wasp

    This is a picture of a wasp eating my neighbour’s fence. The pale streaks below her are where she has dined out on previous occasions. She will take this back to the nest where it will be used to make the paper for the nest. Tricky. Because if you put preservative on the fence, she…

  • Fox

    I met a fox while on my walk this morning. It was a quiet, still, misty dawn. I think the fox was young, it seemed surprised to see a human. It was an exquisitely beautiful little animal. Before darting into the bushes, it stopped to examine me more closely. Not sure whether it was thinking,…

  • Light and stuff

    It was the day of the Big Bang and we were all very excited. I had decided to surf the leading edge of the expansion( nod to Dark Star). I had borrowed my Mum’s ironing board and prepared a package of sandwiches and a flask of coffee. I also had one of those revolving yellow…

  • Ockham’s Razor

    We need to get this out of the way before we do any complicated stuff. William of Ockham (1287 – 1347) The trouble with Ockham’s razor is that it’s a two-edged blade and you can get a nasty cut if you start slashing about with it indiscriminately. There are many ways of stating, or misquoting,…

  • Swans

    Yesterday, I opened my front door and saw this lot trooping past: On their way to the pond at the end of the road. It was a slow and stately procession, marked by the slap of webbed feet on tarmac. It seemed more like  a protest march, I expected to see a placard: The young…

  • Lavender, Angela, Bees and Snails

    Outside my front door, there are two plants, Lavender and Angela. I don’t know what type Angela is, that’s her business. When I first moved in, we had a very hot summer and Angela died. She was nothing but shrivelled brown leaves on brittle twigs. I cleaned up the mess until there was only one…

  • Vegans

    I thought of trying the vegan diet. But, I cannot find any locally sourced organic, free-range vegans. I ordered a vegan take-away once, but all I got was a stupid vegetable curry. Mind you, it probably had a higher IQ than most vegans. What do you think happens to all those fluffy bunny-wunnies, the baa-lambs,…

  • Understanding, Comprehension and Blackbirds

    Understanding is analytical. It is the process of examining the components, parts and processes of a system. Comprehension is the process of examining and reviewing a system as a whole. Blackbird (T.merula) is a songbird. I just looked him up: Europe, Asiatic Russia, North Africa. Gets about a bit. You can watch it. You can…