More crocuses

Here are crocuses again. In the sunshine today they were fully open, so I decided not to miss the chance, even though it's pretty much a repeat of yesterday's blip (well, at least they're different plants). It does gladden the heart to see them. Over the years the bulbs are bulking up so the display gets better each spring. I may be persuading myself not to move house...

I saw the first butterfly of the year today - a Brimstone, as one would expect here. I don't think I've seen one this early for a while, though they are always the first to appear. Butterfly numbers, as with all insects it seems, appear to be falling rapidly. It's all so different from when I was young, but of course it's probably what went on back then which is responsible for the environmental damage that is now becoming so obvious. We always used to find garden tiger moths and stag beetles, of the more memorable species, but I've seen neither for years; in the case of tiger moths, decades. Not that I go hunting for them, but both were once so common. I'd like to think that this is just nostalgia, but the evidence suggests otherwise.