Dirty Flower Beetle

It was a good day for bug hunting. I saw and photographed my first ringlet butterfly of the season but think I can better my shots so I'll leave that for another day. I got a tortoise shieldbug on knapweed. I haven't seen one of those for a couple of years. I've got 2017's pet comma butterfly, his territory is exactly the same as the one I made friends with last year. I've decided to post this little flower beetle, Oedemera lurida I think, as I like the colours in the grass and the yellow of the creeping cinquefoil that is behind. It's scientific name means dirty. It is quite a dull sage green in comparison with the iridescent fat-thighed flower beetle.  

Today's poem is The Lilacs and the Roses by Louis Aragon. http://unisonactive.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-lilacs-and-roses-by-louis-aragon.html

A poem about the horrors of war. The lilacs of May represent the spring before the war, the roses June and the terrible wartime bloodshed. Ed Sheeran mentions lilacs in his song, How Would You Feel? He says, "In the summer as the lilacs bloom" and that struck me as not quite right. However The Barrel Organ by Alfred Noyes urges people to, "Go down to Kew in lilac time" and "wander hand in hand with love in summer's wonderland."