spotted

...today's weather was nothing to write home about - the sun never actually shone, and the rain never actually fell - in short, it was pleasant and ideal for working in the garden.

This morning, I cut the grass, and I use the term grass very loosely here. The lavender hedge is nearly trimmed but I am leaving the area around the wasp spider that I blipped yesterday. As anticipated, the wasp spider that I rescued from the compost heap, spun a new web overnight and it is in a fantastic location for great photographs. I captured some lovely dorsal, ventral and profile views today and, with some better light, expect to get some even better ones later in the week.

After lunch, we took a break from gardening and strolled down the mule track through the olive groves to see what was about in the meadows. The location of our village, like most areas of habitation, was not chosen by chance but because of its access to water, both for drinking and for the land. It is situated on a spring line and several of the springs flow directly into small reservoirs that are used to irrigate the vegetables. There is one that we visit regularly because it contains several species of newt and the meadows that surround it are always full of interesting butterflies and other insects. We were pleased to see that our Alpine Newt is still there and growing nicely.

As usual, there were loads of butterflies, many of which we do not get in the UK and for today's blip I have chosen this Spotted Fritillary Melitaea didyma...