Tortoise Bug

Another dull and damp day. The sun did break through briefly and I nipped out with the camera. I got a couple of common blue butterfly shots but have chosen to post this mid instar nymph of a tortoise bug. These used to be uncommon but are increasing. I got a fillip last week when I was able to identify one for a professional entomologist on Twitter. :) 

Today's poem is The Dead by Rupert Brooke. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47294/the-dead-56d227a2ea215

It is a patriotic sonnet about the glory and sadness of war. An elegy for those who died. RB experienced only one day of limited military action in the war. Maybe he would have thought differently if he had lived until the end of the war. He died as the result of an infected insect bite and was buried on the Greek island of Skyros. We sailed in a small yacht as family to Skyros when our children were about six and seven. The passage is notoriously windy. We'd never experienced waves so huge. It was lovely to visit RB's grave in the calm of the following morning.

RB was bi-sexual and suffered a breakdown because of the emotional turmoil caused by his jealousy and sexuality. One of his most fulfilling relationships was with a South Sea island woman with whom he fathered a child.