Thank you for your comments, David, Trevor and Wurzel.
After a long week of early mornings and late nights, I really wanted to sleep in today. But the weather forecast was for sun in the morning and cloud, then wintry rain, in the afternoon. So Minnie and I nipped off early to the Rhône Valley, where we found six new species for the year before the weather turned. Things were generally subdued, as the ambient temperature was low, but altogether we saw over thirty species - so spring is progressing properly despite the bizarre weather patterns.
The new species for the year were rosy grizzled skipper, which was out in very good numbers, Adonis blue, Chapman's blue, Osiris blue, green-underside blue and de Prunner's ringlet. Here are some pictures:
First, a resh rosy grizzled skipper almost living up to its name!
Here are a couple of undersides:
Southern grizzled skippers were also flying. Here is one nosing up to a green-veined white:
The only other skipper flying was dingy:
I particularly enjoyed watching a female camberwell beauty nectaring. Normally it is males I see, aggressively defending territories. It was lovely to watch her enjoying the morning sun and fattening up, even if she never came close enough - or angled well enough into the sun - for me to get good pictures.
Here's an Adonis blue:
By the time I took that photo the sun was mostly behind cloud.
Other blues:
(snatched upperside of an Osiris blue - it then went to ground with its wings closed)
(the same Osiris blue)
(green-underside)
(Chapman's blue with a rosy grizzled skipper)
I saw just one de Prunner's ringlet. It didn't hang around but I managed a distant record shot or two. This would have been the best if there hadn't been some dried grass sticking up between me and it:
(weather brewing to the east)
(weather brewing to the west)
(weather brewing overhead)
(weather brewed)
Minnie made some friends ...
... and then sought to impress them by peeing just where they couldn't reach. They looked on admiringly:
Her thing today was crickets. I saw her get one (well, I saw her crunching some large, leggy insect with gusto) and managed to restrain her in time to watch another legging it to safety. Anything she catches she eats - and obviously enjoys her al fresco meals:
The Tour de Romandie - our provincial equivalent of the Tour de France - blocked the roads up to Villars for my return, so I had to take the tram, after some delays, and ended up cycling down from Villars to Huémoz in the pouring, freezing rain. What a day of contrasts.
Guy
Goldie 
