Fancy a date?

It's March 28th 2017...no, I know it isn't now! But, it was when I was writing this, which is now, if you follow my drift? Let's move on shall we, I never did like dates anyhow-they remind me of childhood Christmas'. Anybody else recall these?

Just me then! 

Definitely time to move on, as somebody once said, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end." And so let me start another beginning, lest it becomes an end before I have even begun. As I was trying to say, before I added more waffle than an over stocked crêperie; on the 28th day of March, another of my Lime Hawk-moths eclosed. I wasn't around to see the early stages, because, as often happens, it must have begun overnight. But here are the photos I did manage to get...

Click on any photo for a larger view

Fairly soon after emerging, you can see the wings are still folded together

and from another angle

Looking at the curve, and shape of the abdomen, together with the larger antennae, I am pretty sure this is a male...

Such a furry face...

Finally the wings opened to reveal its full beauty

and an outdoor shot before I released it

Luckily, the weather has been reasonable over the past few days and the forecast is good, and so I felt much better about letting this one go. It sat on my Japonica plant for about an hour or so, then slowly began exercising it's wings before taking flight for the very first time...

Or to quote Winston Churchill:

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.