Magnificant Swallowtail moth

Late in the day, at 11.30pm or so, this beautiful moth was flying around outside our patio doors. We opened the door to let it in and it settled onto the curtain and allowed us to take its photograph.

Being night time meant there was only the standard lamp to illuminate the moth and we did not want to disturb it either. This was the best shot of several attempts. Called a Swallowtail because of the little tails on the trailing edge of the wing. Very much like the Swallowtail butterfly which is extremely rare - we saw one in the Dolomites one summer a few years ago.

Apparently this moth is quite common in Southern England but is seen in May and June so it is out and about a bit later than expected.

A quieter sort of day. Collected a new outside light for David to fit and did a bit more shopping while the ladies were out on a shopping spree of their own. Then prepared the Aubergine Bake ready for dinner, then went for a run which was suprisingly good given the distance we'd walked yesterday.

We had good time on Barbara and David's last evening before they travel back up to Scotland tomorrow. Been really nice to have them here and they've helped enormously with lots of jobs and things that needed doing at Doreen's. Going up to Scotland to see them in October and probably again for Christmas.