I told you I was ill

What's the difference between a butterfly and a moth? An old chestnut to which the only final answer is that they are label we choose to apply inconsistently. Most butterflies have 'club-shaped' antennae; most moths have feathery or tapering antennae; most butterflies fold their wings vertically; most moths rest with horizontal wings. But most is not all; there are exceptions to all of these generalisations

Interesting then that many people have very different reactions to the concepts of butterflies and moths. The former are symbols of bright, carefree summer days, light-heartedness and transient pleasure; moths are linked with abandonment and gloom, an unfocused threat, uncanny happenings

I'm feeling a bit better (as you see) - courageous enough to take a picture outside and a test. We have Covid, which I admit was not a great surprise, but a fact I did not want to know for sure while feeling powerless against it. This week is cancelled, of course. Next week's plans involve quite arduous (by our standards) travel. We shall see

Today's plan was attendance at a funeral. We were lucky to have the option of attending the church service, at least, online. As the Catholic rites were rehearsed, we watched the butterflies in the garden. One of the deceased's sons read a poem he composed, which faced full-on the intolerability of loss, but spoke also of the solace he found in the reaction he perceived in the natural world - the coming of foxes, badgers and squirrels to say their goodbyes, and a pair of song-thrushes rising into the air

This is a mint moth. A daytime flier with beautiful markings and a relatively hairless body - and a taste for mint and oregano; but not a butterfly. If you don't already know, 'I told you I was ill' was a quip by Spike Milligan that became an inscription on his gravestone. Only when checking the back-story today did I discover that it is written in Gaelic, as a compromise with the diocesan authorities, who would not otherwise permit it. Milligan adopted Irish nationality when he discovered that being born in British-occupied India to an English mother and Irish father did not qualify him for automatic British citizenship - a label that we choose to apply inconsistently