Fire - Fly

Our patch of orange hawkweed has finished flowering but one stem in bloom remains. This plant, also known as fox-and-cubs and hen-and-chicks, is not native to the UK. It was introduced as a garden plant from Europe in the seventeenth century and has escaped and become naturalized. 

The fly in my image looks superficially like a house fly but on closer inspection the bristly hairs can be seen. It's one of the Tachinids, possibly Exorista rustica. These parasitic flies lay their eggs on the larvae of sawflies.

When I saw my image on screen the oranges and yellows of the hawkweed made me think of the shocking images on TV this morning of the fires raging in Greece. As the Tokyo Games comes to a close, Olympia, where it all started in 776 BC, is in flames.