Evening Birds

 A nightjar stout

An evening outdoors -

Rooks and swifts on chimney tops -

And a Nightjar stout.

Coppery Beauty

I was lucky enough to snap a picture of a live slow worm whilst gardening before it scuttled away. What a beautiful creature!

Neither worm (despite its common name), nor snake, this is the non-venomous, legless lizard, Anguis fragilis. They help keep the slug population down.

French Lieutenant's Woman

 An elderly resident of Llanfyllin wrote this book about the known romance between a French prisoner of war (Pierre Augeraud) and the local rector's daughter in 1812. Pierre was sent back to France in 1814 (mostly orchestrated through the efforts of Marie's father), but he eventually made his way back to Llanfyllin to marry Marie (her father had died in the interim) in 1817. They settled and lived in France till their deaths.

'The French Lieutenant's Woman' written by John Fowles, was a work of historical fiction and was not connected to this true tale.

Whilst paroled in the town council house, Pierre painted a series of murals, which remain to this day and are on show during town festivities.

 

Caterpillar up Close

This is the front end of an elephant hawk-moth caterpillar (Deilephila elpenor) - one of the rewards of working in the yard is getting up close and personal with all manner of creatures.

It's one of countless species that appear to have enormous eyes, but these are merely markings, not functioning eyes

This larva will transform into this beautiful pink and gold moth

Photo from Wikipedia