Jet Effect

The air is sticky-hot and still;
elsewhere, there's thundery rain.
Shadows of an evening hymn
steal across my brain.

My shadow makes me ten feet tall,
butterflies seem slow;
I photograph a Holly Blue
and wrens, who briefly show.

A booming roar shakes the valley
at the close of Dartmouth Regatta
five miles away: when typhoon jets
do a fly-past, scared rooks scatter

along with gulls from a field below:
the evening shatters,
but a cow suckles her new calf
so calmly, nothing matters.

Now, as darkness gathers,
my pictures, too, are spread
before me on my laptop screen,
but - better - in my head.

Took lots of photos on my walk this evening. You can see the RAF Typhoon Jet inset in the photo of the scared gulls and rooks in flight. The jet, although five miles away, was so loud, it shook the whole valley. The cows and sheep didn't turn a hair, though.

I was surprised to see a cow suckling a very new-looking calf; seems quite late in the year, but a lovely sight. My wren photo - as one I took in the garden this week - isn't too sharp. They're so quick.

But, just nine days after photographing my first blue butterfly, a common blue, today I achieved another personal first, photographing a Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus), which is my Extra.

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