it does what it says on the tin

...what a wonderful day! The sun came our 'properly' and the sky was a 'proper' Tuscan blue.

We went for our usual morning stroll through the olive groves and I captured so many butterflies and 'ugly' flies that choosing an image was, once again, a difficult process. To ass to my dilemma, there are a couple of flies that I have not positively identified (I wish I had brought my books) and a couple of Copper butterflies that are proving interesting to confirm, mostly because, if they are what they appear to be, they should not be in our olive groves in Tuscany!

Consequently, I have played safe by choosing this delightful little skipper. It is a Mallow Skipper Carcharodus alceae and it is being a particularly good model because it is actually sitting on Mallow. We don't have these in the UK and, despite their diminutive stature and relatively dull colours, they are rather beautiful.

This afternoon, we took our guests to Bagnone and Pontremoli, followed by a delicious dinner in Villafranca on the way home.

To round off what was already a perfect day, we saw something we have been hoping to see for five years. On several occasions, we have found porcupine quills in and around our village but, until tonight, had never actually seen a porcupine. This evening, as we were driving up the road, a wonderful porcupine was running, as fast as its little legs could carry it, along the road. We crept along behind it for a few hundred metres before it scuttled off into the forest. Magic!

With guests, it has been difficult finding time to attend to commenting but I will catch up a.s.a.p...