This Is Getting Ridiculous Now

Hello Friends!

First, I must apologise for how photo heavy my last entry was. I hadn't realised until after I had posted it just how many photos of the garden flowers I had put in. It's a good job I didn't enlarge them which I normally do.  Mind I have a feeling this one's going to be fairly photo heavy too.

This is getting ridiculous. In a good way, though.  They've got only gone and picked another photo of mine to put in the local paper. I'm losing count now. This must be number five, or possibly even 6?  Only difference is this time, I'm getting a slot as photo of the day next Wednesday. So I've stepped up a notch LoL If they stop putting me in print, I'm sure I'll get withdrawal symptoms. More LoL.
Here's the selected photo of a female Common Blue, but it's such a pretty blue I don't think there's anything common about it, do you? The male, which I've yet to see, is a very pretty blue all over.  Stunning!  It's on mint flowers.

Here's a little montage I made of different shots.

Female under wing

I recently found thousands of photos stored on old laptops, old. USB sticks, and CD's, you name it, probably. around 8000 photos.  So it took me a couple of days to do it all but I slowly managed to upload them all onto one computer. Since then, I've been sorting them out. It's a long task. I've probably done just a couple of thousand so there's a long way to go with them. and I know I've got a few thousand more stored on some other old laptops. I've been having to store these laptops while I make the time to get the photos off them.  So as we're on a theme of butterflies, here's a few more different butterfly photos that I've uploaded recently.

Large White

Meadow Brown

Plume Moth

Orange Tip Butterfly Male

underside 

Brown Plume Moth

Cabbage White

Ermine Moth

Tortoiseshell Butterfly

Red Admiral

Brown Angle Shades Moth

Not sure of this one

Comma Butterfly

Is it any wonder they call the Buddleia the butterfly tree?

I have done my best to identify the butterflies and moths correctly. However, if you can see anything that I have given the incorrect information, please don't. please don't hesitate to correct it in the comments.

Continuing my theme of flavoured breakfast oats. I've added a few more to my repertoire.. One is Peanut butter and raisin oatmeal cookies, which I do enjoy served warm because that's the best way to eat a cookie fresh out of the oven. I'm still wrestling with how to do a lemon drizzle cake. I think the natural addition would be lemon curd, but I don't want to have to buy a whole jar to keep in the fridge just for the occasional bowl of. bowl of porridge.  On the other hand. putting real lemon juice in it's going to make everything pucker up. Why you're probably puckering now with a watering mouth, just thinking. about lemon juice aren't you?  Blueberry Pecan Muffin is another, with frozen blueberries, toasted pecans and a drizzle of maple syrup.  Hungry yet?

Until next time

Stay safe stay well

Debbie xx 

Summer Days

Hello Friends!

What a glorious week of wonderful Summer weather we have had in the west.  It has been hot but not unbearably so, and the days have brought endless sunshine from one end of the day to the next. Tourists have been happy, the annual Sand Church competition went ahead with the tide way out and plenty of good weather for building such creative ideas. I had to work, but found it all on Facebook later that evening.  Fetes, outdoor events, and local festivals have all happened in the best of weather and everyone is smiling and happy, which is what we all like to see.

Blue sky above my cottage!  More than enough for a pair of sailor's trousers, I think we can outfit the fleet!

Please pause with me for a moment, though, for it is not all blue sky and sunshine.  My heart and prayers go out to the parts of England that have suffered most dreadfully. There are some areas that suffered with a heatwave of record breaking proportions, only to have this followed by horrendous thunderstorms, bringing torrential rain which is still bringing life threatening floods and destruction to so many.  I am sad to say that Lyme Park National Trust property is one such place under flood, and some of the significant historic gardens have been destroyed. There are more storms to come.

Speaking of the National Trust, I have been busy polishing my wood furniture with a tin of their finest Furniture Polish. Well, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me!  Isn't this the most sumptuous colour?

The garden slowly fades into late Summer now, and flowers are fewer and further between.  My favourite Field Poppies are flowering and producing welcome seed heads now.

However, this very morning I picked a small handful of the first blackberries of the season. They were sweet and juicy, for we have had rain and sunshine in good quantities at the optimum times. Later, I found half a dozen more.  Yummy!

Butterflies have been visiting too, and Painted Ladies are in exceptionally high numbers across the country.

A Gatekeeper

Red Admiral 

Large White

Do you recall that lovely patio rose I shared here {scroll down a bit to see it}?  The buds that grew around the main one opened suddenly and all together making this sumptuous display.

My one worry is that this spray is on a sucker. I know the damage suckers can do, but oh! it's just so pretty I have not the heart to cut it off.

I apologise for my intermittent appearances, and the brevity of my words, but I am very busy at work now. The main season is upon us, and for most who live here it's a case of all hands on deck while the holidays run, then it will all calm down again. The weather is on the turn too, which means it will be even busier as people do not want to go to the beach or walk the coast path. 

Until next time

Deborah 

Flutterbys and Mirths in the Garden ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.  ~Rabindranath Tagore

oh Flutterby Butterfly ~~~ you delicate, darting, jewel coloured darling ~~~ settling, flitting and flighting, darting, settling, flitting away again ~~~ fly away, fly back, and away again ~~~ busy, busy, busy, butterfly, flying all around the garden ~~~ alight on my arm for a single, magical moment, and away again to the flowers to drink nectar rich ~~~ fairies in my Garden ~~~

One of the things that brings much joy in the Garden is the presence of butterflies, for their fleeting lives are full of beauty, colour, and the urgency to feed and lay their clutches of eggs to ensure the next generation is established ~~~ of course, the eggs hatch into caterpillars and that, sadly, means competition for the food and flowers ~~~

The delicate beauty of the wings, stunning iridescent jewel colours, soft velvety textures, and mosaic patterns leave me in awe at the magical essence of a butterfly.

Aside from being beautiful, butterflies perform an invaluable job in the garden too, for as they feed so they carry pollen on their hairy wings and bodies, so pollinating the plants to make fruits and help to ensure the next generation of plants is nudged on its way for next season ~~~

"To a Butterfly" by William Wordsworth, 

I've watched you now a full half-hour;

Self-poised upon that yellow flower

And, little Butterfly!  Indeed

I know not if you sleep or feed.

How motionless! - not frozen seas

More motionless! and then

What joy awaits you, when the breeze

Hath found you out among the trees,

And calls you forth again!

Here are a few that graced the garden with their presence just this week ~~~ I will do my best to identify them, but I am no expert so please, do not quote me!

Green Veined White Butterfly on Marjoram

Green Veined White Butterfly on Marjoram

A majestic Tortoiseshell ~~~

Montage of Tortoiseshell  Butterfly

Close up showing pollen coating hairs on butterfly

Tortoiseshell Wing Detail

There can be no doubting why the Buddleia is also nicknamed the Butterfly Bush ~~~

This simple and innocent looking butterfly will, in caterpillar form, decimate your cabbages in a trice! 

Small White {a gardener's nemesis}

Oh, I do not think this is a Common Blue at all! That is a very noble, indeed a quite uncommon shade of blue ~~~ don't you think?

Blue-Butterfly Day - Poem by Robert Frost 

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry. 

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire. 

Common Blue on Mint Flowers

Montage of the Common Blue Butterfly

Here is the darker, but equally as stunning Wood Skipper in a country lane near the Cottage ~~~

Wood Skipper

A brightly coloured male Orange Tipped Butterfly alights on an Osteospermum ~~~

Butterfly Laughter - Poem by Katherine Mansfield

In the middle of our porridge plates
There was a blue butterfly painted
And each morning we tried who should reach the
butterfly first.
Then the Grandmother said: "Do not eat the poor
butterfly."
That made us laugh.
Always she said it and always it started us laughing.
It seemed such a sweet little joke.
I was certain that one fine morning
The butterfly would fly out of our plates,
Laughing the teeniest laugh in the world,
And perch on the Grandmother's lap. 

These three are of a Gatekeeper, also know as a Hedge Brown ~~~

Close up with wing detail

Then come the Mirths {moths} ~~~ that is just me being silly with words again ~~~ but moths do bring much mirth I think, almost as much in their own late at night way as the flutterbys bring in the day ~~~

Moths are not easy to identify and to the best of my knowledge this beautiful white one with a fluffy collar looking most regal is a Muslin Moth {but equally could be a Brown Tail or a White Ermine ~~~ I am no expert!  It was a very rainy day and the flashing was quite splashed but I spotted him against the white board, despite his camouflage ~~~

My best guess at the identity of this rather regal, ermine~necked beauty is a White Ermine moth, which seems rather appropriate looking at its neck ~~~

The ghostly, and spookily scary White Feather Moth ~~~

Can you spot this one? I could barely see it in amongst the berries, but spot it I did ~~~ possibly a Silver Y?

The caterpillar of the Mullein Moth ~~~

A voracious devourer of any leaf from the Mullein plants ~~~ but what a beauty it is ~~~

I have absolutely  no idea what this is, but it was barely visible against the wall ~~~

Another mystery moth ~~~

The next two images are of butterfly eggs ~~~ well hidden on the undersides of leaves ~~~ but see how different the two are?

This scary beast is the caterpillar of the Elephant Hawkmoth ~~~

and finally, butterflies do love to bask in the sun, on a warm wall or leaf ~~~

Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.~Hans Christian Andersen

Until next time
Sincerely yours
Deborah