The weather this week has ranged from mediocre to terrible, but today is great. You could almost be forgiven for thinking spring is on the way.

Look who popped into my garden as I was hanging out the washing:

enlarge…

I love monarchs, being inedible means that they don’t care about being garish and gives them an in-your-face attitude, like the 1980s distilled into butterfly form. This one looked a bit worse for wear after a hard winter, but still managed to look pretty boss.