Fences and a Gate with a messagel

Just occasionally a fence adds to the beauty of a flower shot.

Buddleia overhang

Honeysuckle - but where's the bee?

On a recent visit to Cornwall we had to pass through a gate with a message for users.

Gate (and fence) guarding the entrance to a woodland path

The message

Message for the dogs

Unfortunately we did not have one to exercise and had to settle for a stroll instead.

Sunlit path

A bewitched setting to be linked to Good-Fences-83.

A - Z Challenge 2015 - Butterflies 'T''

T - Tortoiseshell butterflies.

Of the two Tortoiseshell butterflies  it's the Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urtica) that is the most common and found throughout the British Isles,

It's one of the first butterflies to be seen each summer. We saw the first one this year on 5th April.  The buddleia is a favourite plant.

Two Small Tortoiseshell Butterflies in our garden

Small Tortoiseshell

Its orange colour with brown, black, yellow and blue markings are unmistakable.

It will quite happily share a flower with a bumblebee.

From the underside there is no hint of its colourful appearance.

The Large Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis polychlorox) is similar in appearance but is usually only seen in Suffolk and north Essex. There is little chance of my getting to photograph one.

Love is like a butterfly
As soft and gentle as a sigh
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing

I feel it when you're with me
It happens when you kiss me
That rare and gentle feeling that I feel inside
Your touch is soft and gentle
Your kiss is warm and tender
Whenever I am with you I think of butterflies

Love is like a butterfly
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing

Your laughter brings me sunshine
Every day is spring time
And I am only happy when you are by my side

A-Z Challenge - Butterflies 'P'

P - Painted Lady, Peacock

These, as their names imply, are two of Britain's most colourful butterflies.

What's more they are frequent visitors to our Buddleia, aka Butterfly Bush, each summer.

Painted Lady

This Painted Lady however was sunning itself on the leaves of one of our Rhododendrons.

Its caterpillars are grey or black with yellow stripes on the side. They feed on may plants including thistles and nettles. 

The adult butterflies migrate and hibernate in the winter south of the Alps. Immigrants enter Britain from April. There are two or three broods between June and September

We often find a Peacock on the ground,

Peacock Butterfly (from our bedroom window)

However there is no doubt where they like the best,

On the Buddleia having driven off a Large White

They are happy of course to share a flower with others.

Peacock Butterflies on Buddleia

The brightly coloured eye-like markings on its wings are like the spots on a peacock's tail - hence its name.

When at rest the Peacock's eye-spot is hidden but when disturbed it opens its wings to display them and scare of any predatory birds.

Common throughout the British Isles they lay their eggs on nettles in April and May. Caterpillars are jet black and finely speckled with white. 

We saw our first Peacock this year on April 5th.

Peacock Butterfly Caterpillars

The butterflies emerge from the pupae from July and brighten the countryside until September or October. We will be looking out for them from when our Buddleia breaks into flower.

The Peacock also appears on a set of butterfly stamps issued by the Royal Mail.

Love is like a butterfly
As soft and gentle as a sigh
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight
Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing

I feel it when you're with me
It happens when you kiss me
That rare and gentle feeling that I feel inside
Your touch is soft and gentle
Your kiss is warm and tender
Whenever I am with you I think of butterflies

Love is like a butterfly
The multicolored moods of love are like its satin wings
Love makes your heart feel strange inside
It flutters like soft wings in flight

Photo attribution:

• Peacock Butterfly Caterpillars: 28 June 2008, upload by Computerhotline, by Rictor Norton and David Allen - CC BY 2.0

A-Z Challenge 2015 - Butterflies A

A- Z Challenge 2015

My A-Z posts this year will be about butterflies with an emphasis of those from Britain. I expect that I shall have to include some from elsewhere as well. Until I get started I'm not sure what other connections will occur. You will just have to wait and see. As usual I am expecting to cheat for some letters of the alphabet; I’m sure you will see why.

In 1978 there was a sitcom on British TV called 'Butterflies.' Its theme tune was one I always associate with Dolly Parton - "Love is like a butterfly."

Dialogue in the first episode included these words, "We are all kids chasing butterflies. You see it, you want it, you grab it and there it is all squashed in your hands."

I promise you that no butterflies have been harmed in this Challenge. 

After all, "Love is like a butterfly, a rare and gentle thing."

A - Adonis Blue


Adonis was the Greek god of beauty and desire whose name in modern times is often applied to handsome youths.

Adonis Blue - Male

This brilliant sky blue butterfly is the most vivid of British blue butterflies. The female is chocolate brown.

Adonis Blue - Female

As you can see both have chequered fringes to their wings with the female having flecks of yellow.

Although it has become a declining species conservationists are trying to encourage populations by managed grazing programs in their chalk grasslands. They are to be found on the limestone and chalk of southern England in Dorset, the Isle of Wight, the Chilterns, Wessex and Kent.

Hippocrepsis comosa

The horseshoe vetch (hippocrepsis comosa) is the only flower on which this butterfly feeds so you are unlikely to find it on the bush that bears its name.

Buddleja davidii - Adonis Blue

The buddleia, apply known as the butterfly bush, in our garden attracts many butterflies each year but unfortunately not the Adonis Blue.

Each Sunday I contribute to the Sunday Stamps meme. How I wish I could include this stamp.

Hungary

Photo Attributions:

• Adonis Blue - Male: Polyommatus bellargus, 25 June 2006, Harold Süpfle - CC BY-SA 2.5
• Adonis Blue - Female: Polyommatus bellargus, 25 June 2006, Harold Süpfle - CC BY-SA 2.5
• Horseshoe vetch hippocrepsis comosa, uploaded by Tigerente, June 11 2006 - CC BY-SA 3.0
• Buddleja davidii, Adonis Blue, 22 Aug 2012, Ptelea - CC BY-SA 3.0
• Hungarian Stamp, scan by Darjac

More Favourite Photos of the Year - Thematic Photography

Carmi has continued the 'favourite photo' theme for a second week, so here are another six from 2013 - three from Michigan and three from our Yorkshire garden.

Michigan Deer

And another shot of that grasshopper that appeared in my previous set of favourites.

Grasshopper in the sun

While on a walk from my daughter's home we came across a colourful postbox.

Red Cardinal Postbox

Back in my Yorkshire garden I soon had a helper when I turned the soil.

Female Blackbird waits for worms

This is what a butterfly bush (buddleia) attracts.

Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly

When I opened up our compost bin this came out the bottom.

Garden Frog

Hope you like these further favourites of mine. To see what others have selected just check out the links in the comments at Carmi's Thematic-photographic-277.

A-Z Challenge 2013 - 'P' - Passion Flower

My A-Z posts this year are based on my garden – flowers, animals, the birds and the bees, butterflies - with a bit of poetry thrown in. For some letters I am expecting to cheat somewhat – wishing they were here.

Please note that I have been/still am ill. Also I have had a computer failure that has not yet been resolved completely causing me to post late. I have been unable to reply to comments and to visit other A- Z participants for the past week. Will do my best to catch up as soon as I can; please accept my apologies in the meantime.

P – Passion Flower, Pheasant, Petunia, Peacock, Peony

Lay down on your pillow

And turn the lights down low

Let me take you to the garden

Where the passion flower grows.

 

Passion Flower

Roman Catholic priests (late 1500's) named it for the Passion (suffering and death) of Jesus Christ. The parts of the plant symbolised features of the Passion. The flower's petals and sepals represented the apostles who remained faithful to Jesus throughout the Passion. The circle of hair-like rays above the petals suggested the crown of thorns that Jesus wore the day he died.

Each day since late February, when it’s just light enough to see, we have heard, not the crowing of a cockerel, but the call of one of these magnificent birds:-

 

Cock Pheasant (on Tresco)

Gilded with leaf-thick paint; a steady

Eye fixed like a ruby rock;

Across the cidrous banks of autumn

Swaggers the stamping pheasant-cock.

At different times during the day it takes a stroll around two or three gardens before it returns to shelter under the bushes next door.

 

Cock Pheasant crossing drive next door

When it comes to flowers there are so many beginning with a ‘P,’ so I have to be careful which ones I choose to show.

These have been successful in the border and in tubs.

 

Petunias

There is no chance for any one of them to claim, "I'm a lonely little petunia in an onion patch,"  (see video link)

 Butterflies take a fancy to them too, but the Buddleia bush is a particular favourite for some.

 

Peacock Butterflies

Issa, a Japanese poet, is said to have written  up to 20,000 haiku, with around 84 about the peony, a flower which has a reputation for bringing prosperity:

Peonies

The god of fortune

and luck dwells here

a peony

 Poems:

• Where the Passion Flower Grows – Charles M Moore
• Cock-Pheasant – Laurie Lee
• Peony – Issa; Japanese peony haiku

Photos/Video

• I’m a lonely little Petunia in an Onion Patch – Youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7nO9n6Ez64