Rescue mission!

As I may have said on my blog before, I don`t like creepy-crawlies, and especially not spiders. This is the time of year when there seem a lot of webs on the shrubs and bushes in the garden. I appreciate the beauty of them, especially when the dew is on them first thing in the morning and they shine in the sunlight, but I don`t like the creatures that make them.

There is one particularly large one across the outside (thankfully the outside, and not the inside!!) of the window near my dining table. Whist I was having my lunch today I became aware of something large flapping near the window. At first i thought it was a leaf blown into the web, then I realised it was a butterfly.

After watching it for a while, I saw that it wasn`t managing to get out of the web, and the spider hadn`t appeared. I couldn`t bear to see it struggling there any longer, so knew I had to go on rescue mission! Not that I`m particularly fond of being near butterflies either but I couldn`t bear seeing it suffer, so out I went with a small piece of stick and managed to get it out of the web and onto the stick... but then, I couldn`t get it off the stick. It still seemed to be stuck by some of the stickiness from the web, although it was vigorously flapping its wings, so with the aid of a second twig I eventually managed to get it off onto the grass.

As it sat(?) laid(?) there on the grass I saw how beautiful it was, so came and got my camera to take these photos to share with you all. What kind of butterfly is it, I don`t know..... but perhaps someone does.