Northern Cyprus: May 2015: Part 5

It's Xmas Day and all is joyful within (and we've had/are having a wonderful time, thank you for asking). But outside the weather is still pretty dismal and prevented us from getting any fresh air. Time to revisit Cyprus for some more sun, warmth and colour.

To Veni Vici in Lapta for an Italian meal. An excellent restaurant and the experience was enhanced by the misplaced apostrophe. We pedants do love a catastrophic apostrophic caligraphic cock-up. Or was it? Perhaps the bottom line had been missed out and it should have read "...cooked by international chef's girlfriend/mother-in-law/boyfriend...or whatever". Or maybe they were offering a magnificent prize for whoever pointed out their mistake to them? And we missed out. Boo hoo.

These Pine Processionary Moths really fascinate me. Their close relative, the Oak Processionary Moth, is beginning to cause a problem in the UK but it hasn't yet reached the West Country. Who knows what climate change will do to its range. We've had Dutch Elm Disease, Larch Dieback and Ash Dieback so UK trees are taking a bashing at the moment.

"Is this my best side?" says Mr Swallowtail. "Any side is your best side" says I, "you are beautiful to look at from all angles".

This is a Marbled White, a rather skittish butterfly that did not stay still for very long.

And here's a Grayling which seemed to prefer flitting over the hot gravel of the track I was walking in. I failed completely to get a shot of it with its wings open. But I remember having great fun trying.

A Large White, previously known as the Cabbage White. This latter name gives away its preference for members of the Brassica family as its food plants, 

A good specimen of a Clouded Yellow Butterfly. There were quite a few of them around but they were uniformly difficult to get a reasonable photograph of.

 

Just a beetle on some Knapweed.

Some flowering cactus to remind us that soon, very soon, our garden will be full of yellow daffodils. And as I found to my cost by getting too close, those spikes penetrate clothes and puncture skin very effectively.