Zooming in

I'm sure it's a good year for bugs. Sitting in a wood the other evening, I was astonished at the buzz. It's probably some shifting baseline thing and they used to be positively deafening.

I really like the big dragonflies, whose wings clatter together when they get into disputes, a surprisingly plasticky clatter. Problem is, they always seem to be zooming around their space. Very territorial. Army helicopters.

Butterflies are territorial too. Each monitoring its own strip of vegetation. These two, maybe meadow browns, were not fighting though.

They flew around when disturbed, still attached.

This looks like the perfect home for some little sprite person.

I should know what fungus, but I don't. It really was quite appealing.

On the tracks in the avenue, which is lined with poplars, a snowfall.

No wonder they call similar trees cottonwoods in America.

It's going to be hot here for the next ten days. This is especially bad as the cat-known-as-trouble has taken a dislike to the fan. It's 2:36am as I write.... no, I can't blame the temperature. It's just the Night of Insomnia. I have not been having so much trouble so regularly as before, so I am being philosophical about it. Kinda.