Papillon

Spotted this butterfly basking in the sun while I was gardening, first one of the year. It's on some of the dreaded ground elder (now pretty much reduced to piles of rubbish) - see below. Of course the camera was up three flights of stairs but I blipped with my phone. The sun meant I couldn't see the screen to check whether I'd managed to get it at all, never mind in focus and of course as soon as it realised I was there, off it flew, so no time for a second one. I don't think it's bad though.

It struck me, as I shovelled out piles of ground elder that this seems to be my gardening fate - dealing with horrible, invasive, choking, resistant to double strength glyphosate, plants. At La G it's the dreaded vigne vierge (Virginia creeper). Someone must have planted it thinking it would look pretty in the autumn when the colours change. Disaster, it got out and is now everywhere, choking everything in its path. Here it's the ground elder also known as garden plague!. Seems we can blame the Romans for it. I didn't realise you could eat it. Maybe I should rush down and rescue some stalks and leaves for my tea!