Wolves Wild

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.

Fungi on the trunks of various trees around les Eyzies. I’m currently still walking with the aid of a crutch, so exploring the extensive woodlands in the area wasn’t an option. The trees supporting these fungi were nearish to the river; some of them in the garden of the hotel we were staying in.

Butterflies in les Eyzies. Only the small white was taken during our recent visit: the others date from an earlier visit, exactly twelve years earlier.

A large assortment of flowers which drew my attention enough for me to picture them during our recent visit to France. Most were by roadsides in les Eyzies, either growing wild, planted by the authorities or in gardens. A few in a riverside park in Bordeaux, and one features a flower bed in the Luxemburg Gardens, Paris.

This striped shield bug doesn’t exactly have camouflage which lets it blend in with whatever plants it lands on. There have been a smattering of records of them in England, the furthest north in Solihull.

Incising and sculptures representing women and fertility. The so-called Venus of Laussel (otherwise known as the Venus with the horn) and some of the other larger pieces are in the Museum of the Aquitaine in Bordeaux, the others in the museum at les Eyzies.