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This morning R and I felt the need to walk off a slight surfeit of cake. The bottle of fizz we drank last night, while puzzling out the answers to a kind of This Is Your Life crossword that L had created for her Dad for his birthday, was also making its after-effects felt - never exactly party animals, we're both now total light-weights. Well - I say that, but given the state of my trouser waistband this morning, it may be wishful thinking.

Anyway, it was a lovely day, so we went off to Croome, listening to Caimh McDonnell's Dead Man's Sins as we drove, and hooting with laughter despite our cake-and-fizz hangovers. (If you've never read any of Mr McDonnell's work I recommend it wholeheartedly, and if you have an Audible account even more so, because Morgan C. Jones' interpretation is a one-man acting masterclass, and an absolute joy to listen to. What the author himself calls the Increasingly Inaccurately Titled Dublin Trilogy now runs to at least eight books, which jump wildly backwards and forwards in time, but there's a page here that lists them in both publication and chronological order.)

The lake at Croome provided Willow Emerald and Blue-tailed Damselflies, Migrant Hawkers, Common and Ruddy Darters, a single male Emperor, and a few elderly Black-tailed Skimmers, but I was especially taken with this male Common Darter, who was casually obelisking on top of a post while chewing his latest victim. Darters adopt this pose when it's very hot and sunny, pointing their abdomens towards the sun to reduce the proportion of their body surface receiving direct sunlight, and thus prevent overheating.

The Common Darter is R's favourite of my photos today, and it's just as well one of us had a firm preference or I might never have managed to choose an image. One of my other top contenders was a pair of Blue-tailed Damselflies in cop, and I've posted them to my Facebook page, if you'd care to take a look.