But...

what was a butterfly Mummy?

                              
The buddleia bush has blushed unseenvisited and wasted  its fragrance on the desert air (too true) this year. I've not seen an insect on it.  Bees and wasps no longer congregate around our stone walls. Grasshoppers are silent - or absent. Etcetera. There are reports of the same from the neighbouring county too. We all know the story and it's not new.

I went up the nearby small coastal hillock to admire the colours of the heather and gorse blossom and noticed that there were a few meadow brown butterflies darting around. On the way down I was pleased to get a bead on this fine hedge brown, or gatekeeper, the dark scent patches on the wings indicating it was a male.

Heading home along the road I stopped as usual to collect litter dropped from passing vehicles (mostly plastic bottles, drink cans and coffee beakers). Among them on the verge was a cheap nylon shopping bag which must have blown out of a car window; it was navy blue with a stylized pattern of... butterflies.