If I never ever see you again...

Not that I am going anywhere! This butterfly is The Large Blue, actually rather small but incredibly rare. We saw them in Daneway Banks nature reserve, near Sapperton. CleanSteve followed them around for a long time, along with some lepidopterists, while I sat on a bench admiring the view and the birdsong, and reading about murders in New York state...

An elderly man came along with a folding chair and asked me if I was Jill. I replied in the negative, and he introduced himself as a volunteer warden from the Glos Wildlife Trust. He said he was there to guard the butterflies, as there had been rumours that someone had been observed trying to steal The Large Blue.

I asked him what he might do if he observed suspicious behaviour.

"I'd approach the person, and ask them to take their net off site. If they did not comply, I would phone for back up. But I think the back up is in the Forest of Dean (about forty miles away) so I might, yes I would, phone the police".

I agreed that this would be the right thing to do in the circumstances, since the Large Blue is a protected species. It was extinct in this country until recently reintroduced from Sweden. The warden left, carrying his orange nylon folding chair. He joined the clumps of expert photographers gazing into the grasses. Dog walkers came and went.

Eventually I joined CleanSteve as the butterfly was really quite near me, and I did not want to waste the opportunity of a lifetime. As I approached, he said it had flown off, but I spotted another, and we followed it around the reserve. I only got blurry phone shots, as you can see, but do go to CleanSteve's blip for a cracking macro.