Painted Lady butterflies....


28th July 2019 (Sunday)      06.30 ....  we have a ‘bright and breezy’ start to
"Archie" - Elie and Earlsferry SC skiff.
the day, and the air (from the North East) already feels warm;  but there’s a ’funny’ smell to it... like somebody has been spraying stuff.    I’m going out on the bike early because the streets and roads are quiet at this time.... and a short spell of ‘light rain’ is forecast to come in from the North sea, later in the morning.    Right now it looks like it’s never going to rain again.

 08.30     If you live in Elie and Earlsferry, sometime today you will see a Painted Lady butterfly;  in fact you will see a lot of them.... they are everywhere.    I must have see 50+ when up at Chapel Green this morning;   and that was early.    This influx of Painted Lady’s explains two other things;   (1) the colour of the sky at 05.30 in the past few mornings, and (2) the ‘funny smell this morning.    Painted Lady’s migrate from North Africa on a wind from that airt, which
Painted Lady.
also brings with it Saharan dust.   Anyway our villages are alive with Painted Lady’s .... as is most of the UK.
At the harbour (Elie)  I came across the Sailing Club skiff being made ready for a trip to Kinghorn today the ‘plan’ being to row (“Archie” is a Coastal Rowing skiff) from Kinghorn across Pettycur Bay to Aberdour.   I hope the weather stays fair for them.... the wind is freshening, but the rain has not arrived though it has clouded over in the past hour.
21.30     I’ve had a happy day;  round the  villages in the morning (on the bike)... working most of the remainder of the day (I’ve decided to ‘top and tail’ the big bedroom... at my age it’s not a job I’m going to do often), with numerous breaks in the Hutte, with a cuppa and to do a Soduko.   Then I had the last stage of the Tour de France (Stage 21) in the early evening;  yes I am a contented boy tonight.    And I got a few photographs of a Painted Lady.... one of the thousands around the villages this morning... (and of one millions that arrived on the East Coast of the UK over the past
Elie High Street.


couple of days).    It’s amazing to think that they migrate all the way from North Africa..... mate, lay eggs which eventually appear as fresh looking Painted Lady’s ready to migrate back to Africa in September.   They can't survive our winter.


Plan for tomorrow?     I haven’t really thought about a ‘plan’.    The Tour de France is finished for this year so I’ll have more time to do .... work I’d imagine.    The weather is forecast to be predominately cloudy with the chance of light showers

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