LILY IN DEFIANCE

It isn't a lily at all, really, although it is most commonly known as an "arum lily." I wanted to do a shot of it because it is in defiance of autumn/winter just as I am. I must have taken 50 shots of the thing, trying to get the ultimate macro shot. Then this tiny butterfly landed upon it. It went straight down into the depths of the flower and, to my horror, did not come back out. I peered into the flower and it was in the very bottom seemingly wedged in. Having read about the plant before taking its picture the words, "All parts of the plant are poisonous" rattled around in my head. Was this a suicide butterfly or a little innocent lured by the colours? There are shots in better focus than this but I've seen so few butterflies this year I had to use this one.

Evening update: The butterfly is no longer in the depths of the flower. It must have walked up and out and flown away. Great!

I know full well it is autumn but I cling to the idiotic notion that it is not, in spite of grey skies, yellow leaves and acorns crunching under foot. I'm one of those people in the northern hemisphere who descend into gloom in the winter. The place to be at this time of year is New Zealand or Oz.

This is straight from the camera, not even cropped because I wanted the pale leaves at the top to be in the picture.