May Butterfly Discoveries

                                                                     
                   A Green hairstreak seen near Ivinghoe Beacon

                                         
                   A Duke of Burgundy seen near Ivinghoe Beacon

Dartmoor dawn and day

Dec 2nd 2015 Evening

December 2^nd 2015 Evening.

Barbican Theatre, London: Shakespeare’s ‘Henry 5^th’

Parliament, London:  Should Britain use Air strikes against Syria?

   On stage, Henry queries, ‘Is it legal to go to war’?

   In Parliament, Cameron urges airstrikes on Syria:

War by another name, a fight from distant skies.

Henry leads his men, encouraging, determined,

Fighting for land, for victory over old enemies.

It’s defence of France today, to support victims

Of honourless slaughter, bombed by fanatics

   With aims buried in bloodlust, nurtured far away.

The Chorus begs us to use ‘imaginary forces’

     To see the ‘vasty fields of France’ on a bare stage;

      We do, but with ravaged lands, refugees, evil, also.

    Henry’s past fight entwines with current choices,

The safety of the play, of known triumph

 Lets us wonder at past decisions, ponder glory,

But all the while, irony stalks our thoughts -

To what will air strikes lead?

Glasgow

Filling the void

Grayson Perry Reflection

A Billboard!

A Green Bottle Blue Tarantula from Venezuela at Butterfly World!

The Sunflower Head Harvest

The Sunflower Harvest

There is beauty in decay.

The sunflower's yellow cartwheel

Of summer is only a memory,

The heads bow now with seed,

Arching to scatter before

The harvesters' guillotine ends them.

The heads are sculptural,

A maze of chambers of precious

Progeny; brown, protective,

Muted in design, but generous.

A Gynandromorph Butterfly (exactly half male and half female)

The full name of this butterfly is a Papilionidae Lowii

- an Asian Swallowtail. It has  been 'born' exactly half male 

and half female ( a gynandromorph). The female half

is the more colourful half on the right hand side and

although it is difficult to see even the body is half black

 (male) and half yellow-ish.This very rare occurrence took

 place at Butterfly World, St Albans. 

"Where the bee sucks...."

Moon Eclipse

Chicory