Pictured, Not Seen

What is the use of a blog without pictures? as Alice nearly asked. Well, of course it has plenty of uses, and some of the very best blogs make do with no pictures at all, but my own inclination has always been towards an illustrated blog. Which means I've been having a frustrating time of it lately, defeated by the technology (which seemed to change overnight from something I knew how to use into something I couldn't use - please don't ask for details, it's too humiliating). Anyway, now, with the help of a friend, I've cracked it - and to celebrate, I've put up a picture of an Adonis Blue. This is the butterfly - the most ravishingly beautiful of our native blues - that I went looking for at the weekend, but sadly failed to find. As I also failed to find the Silver-Spotted Skipper - it probably just wasn't warm enough to get that reluctant flyer into the air. I did see some faded Brown Arguses and large numbers of Small Heaths - both of these seem to have been having a bumper year. That might be the anticlimactic end of my butterfly summer, but I live in hope and shan't be filling my annual report just yet. I'm pretty sure that I saw two swifts, which would have extended my swift summer into September - but I can't be certain as it was a brief, distant sighting. My last certain swift was on August 27th, and that, in my book, is pretty late.