Walking with a crutch can make photography difficult, particularly if the crutch goes on the same arm used to hold the camera. It makes for especial awkwardness when fiddly manoeuvres are involved, such as adding close-up lenses for picturing insects or other subjects.
These European firebugs are very distinctive, and apparently quite common on across much of the Eurasian mainland: most reports in Britain are near the coasts facing France and the low countries.
I saw several when we visited last month, but didn’t picture any. These pictures were taken when we previously visited the village, at the same time of year in 2012. Posts for the next few days will also include pictures from that visit, which I didn’t upload to the web at that time.