Encounters with a Red Admiral.

I was collecting fallen apples when I saw a colourful butterfly sitting on one of them.  This looked like an ideal juxtaposition for a Blipfoto, so went indoors to fetch my camera.  The butterfly was still there, but as I approached fairly close it flew away.  A couple of minutes later it reappeared right under my nose, sitting by the pocket of the gardening jacket which I was wearing.  It was posing beautifully, wings wide open, but of course the one thing I couldn't do was to photograph it.

Anyway, it flew off and looked for somewhere else to land; it had taken a liking to this particular area of the garden, and decided to perch on the branch of a lichen-encrusted quince tree.

It went into "camouflage mode" by closing its wings, and could have been mistaken for a dead leaf; on a closer look, I found that its underwings mimic lichen, albeit a rather darker lichen than appears here.

When the sun came out, it quickly opened its wings, laid (or rather, ejected) two eggs and flew away.

I had taken several photos,and in the end decided on this image rather than one of the more brightly colourful ones.  In dull light you would not notice this at all.