A flake of sky

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.

The poem by Robert Frost appears to describe a whole swarm of blue butterflies whereas I spotted just the one, this female Holly Blue, Celastrina argolius, distinguishable from the male by the broad band of grey along the edge of the wings, just like today's sky: blue shadowed by cloud. Like the poet's butterflies too, the Holly Blue one of the first to appear in Spring and its long season allows for two new generations to breed each year, the first laying their eggs on holly, the second on ivy.

I saw this butterfly along the coast path where other 'flowers that fly' were on the wing too: orange tips, speckled woods and small whites, together with lots of those big, black, unpleasant-looking-but-harmless, 'St Mark's flies' with dangling legs, named for their emergence around the saint's day today, April 25th.

Better LARGE.