My mate, Pete, is coming over today to do a 4 day trek around the Saas Valley, starting on Sunday*. So yesterday, I decided to go for a relatively short, circular walk from Les Haudères, as a sort of warm up. The route goes up the Ferpècle valley to the small hamlet of Sepey, before turning back left towards La Forclaz and then down again to Les Haudères.
It’s not the most attractive start, as it begins near to the recycling centre, but you’re very soon leaving that behind and into the woods and alpine meadows. Again I was beginning to think the butterflies had deserted me but, in the clearings, there were several Marbled Whites and two or three Adonis Blues around. I’m not sure what the butterfly is in picture 4. I thought it was a Small Blue, but another of my photos suggests there’s a small tail on the hind wing, so I’ve plumped for the Provencal Short-tailed Blue, but I may well be wrong. Either way it was a very pleasant walk in glorious sunshine. 😊
*My apologies in advance if I’m not as responsive as usual to all of your posts, but I will endeavour to catch up with you all this time next week. I will, of course, be posting some photos of our adventure! 😊
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
Wow! Stunning landscape and lovely photos as ever. 👍
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Thank you Maxine. I hope you and your family are all well. Le Tour is going pretty well so far, don’t you think? I didn’t expect Yates to be leading.
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Hello Mike, yes we are very well thank you, such a relief after this time of pandemic! I hope you and Jude are keeping well too, along with your family and friends. The Tour has been really enjoyable hasn’t it? It’s great to see Adam Yates in Yellow, in fact, there are some very exciting cyclists this year all round, lovely to see, 👍
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I think Ineos are still waiting to pounce. But there are a few teams who might yet cause a surprise. I’m glad you’re all well. We are too thanks. I will look forward to some of your amazing paintings in the next few weeks. 😊
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Yes Mike, I absolutely agree, you can never write-off Ineos! I am a fan of Jumbo-Visma, who look very strong and there are more new stars rising too. All bodes very well for a great race yet again. I am making paintings now, (a bit late because we were having some work done to the house!) and really enjoying experimenting with colour as always, the Tour is such a colourful event, it’s the perfect subject! Keep well, and I look forward to seeing more photos of your beautiful countryside. 😊
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I’ve just got back from a 4 day walk, staying in mountain huts and I’m totally out of touch with what’s been going on in the world. I’ll have to catch up on the Tour but I’m sure it’s not all over yet. 😊
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Hi Mike, your trip sounds great, if a bit Spartan! Not sure that I am a mountain hut kind of girl, but the idea of being totally out of touch with the world appeals hugely!!! I can’t wait to read your posts and you have so much to catch up with on the Tour, it’s been very exciting! Lovely to hear from you as always, Maxine 👍
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Hi Maxine. The huts are not as spartan as you might think, though it would be equally misleading to call them hotels. I did take a few pictures of the inside of one and I may post that for interest. It was a great few days. 😊
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Oh, that’s a huge relief! I had visions of a wooden garden shed with a hole in the middle!!!! I shall look forward to your posts with full details! 🙂
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OK – I’m working on it. (There will probably be 6 posts altogether). 😊
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Fantastic! looking forward as ever 🙂
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Love that cloud over the mountain! Have a fantastic, safe adventure, Mike, looking forward to your photos!
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Just back after a great trip and trying to catch up… I have over 1,000 photos to sort out so, it may be a day or two before the posts are published… (hopefully it will be worth the wait!) 😊
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Wow, so many photos, I bet they are awesome. I’m way behind myself, our past week was a lot of traveling, we’re back home with the motorhome. We canceled our last leg of our trip to the Colorado mountains, I am very bummed about it, BUT we’ll do that trip another summer, when things are more normal hopefully! Looking forward to seeing your photos when I can catch up!
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Sorry to read that your trip was cut short. My posts will be coming thick and fast now, so hopefully that may make up for it (if only a little). 😊
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Beautiful photos 😍
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Many thanks for your kind comment. (Sorry for the delay in my reply, but I’ve been away capturing some more images of this beautiful country – posts to come in the next few days). 😊
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Gorgeous! Looking forward to see what is to come. 😊
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Thank you Irene. We got back the other day and I have quite a few photos to sort out, but I’ll be posting something in the coming days. 😊
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Yay! 😊
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Post 1 (of 6) just published. 😊 (4 should be a humdinger!)
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Thanks! 😁
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Enjoy your adventures and thank you so much for bringing us all along! Such beautiful scenes. Magical. Take good care Mike!
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Thank you Sandra. The journey gets more interesting hereonin… 😊
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