I was reading by the garden pond when a red flash caught my eye. Our first damselfly of the year was on the wing. An hour before, I’d watched her emerge from the pond, crawling up a spear of flag iris. Now, flying languidly to the raspberry bushes, the spring sunshine sparked on her brand new, barely dried wings. For the next two or three weeks, this large red damselfly (pyrrhosoma nymphula) will grace our village with her dream-like fly-pasts.