Tuesday 20th August 2019

Tuesday. And if I'm honest, I wasn't in the mood for the cross-trainer.

So after drinking the coffee that Jools made, I lolled around the house like the lazy lollygagger that I am, before getting dressed and making breakfast.

As I say, there is always work to fall back on.

The weather is improving, the winds are dropping, and mornings dawned clear and fresh, with the pre-sunrise sky a fine salmon pink.

Lovely.

When the sun rises and the day warms, but garden is all aflutter with butterflies of many species arriving to feast on the (Jelltex) garden of delights.

Mostly Painted Ladies and Red Admirals. The Painted Ladies are enjoying their best year for a decade, with many UK reared hatchlings, now on the wing looking for food. And love.

Mostly in our garden it seems.

And the birds arrive to empty the feeders.

Its all go.

Sometimes we need to just sit and watch the (garden) action.

As Jools is fasting again this week, it means that to not appear cruel, I have my cooked meal at lunchtime. This time curry and curried rice. The curry was shop-bought, but I prepared the rice, and after mixing the curry and rice, I scooped up the resulting sludge with toasted flatbreads.

Nom.

Nom.

Nom.

And inbetween eating and watching the wildlife, I squeeze some work in.

As you do.

At the end of the afternoon, I take me and the camera for a walk to the butterfly glade the other side of the fields.

I found this place, rich in Brown Argus, Common Blues, Red Admirals many years ago, so go back now to see what else I can see. Last year, I snapped a Silver Washed Fritillary in the area, I learned the day, the first seen in the village.

Last week, a very rare migrant was seen in the village too, a Queen of Spain Fritillary. Could I have seen one here, too?

Who knows.

Anyway, I see a fritillary, but it swoops and glides, and after some investigation, the QoS is very different, so it was the Sliver Washed I saw.

Probably.

I see all of the above, plus Peacocks, Commas, Large and Small Whites.

I could have stayed for hours, but the overgrown state of the glade meant that I couldn't really close enough to snap them.

So, I walk back.

Jools comes home to find I had been gardening: planting some Black Eyed Susans and deadheading the artichokes. Among other things.

We have a brew, and I toast some bagels, smothering them with garlic cream cheese and dried fried onions.

A fine repast.

Jools asked to play Uckers. So, I give in. And she beats me.

Bloody hell.

So, the day ends with me watching football from Hull, as they slip to a poor defeat to Blackburn, in an atmospheres best described as "quiet".