This morning we went to Crickley Hill, where I was lucky to photograph 3 Wall butterflies.

Small Heath butterflies, also from the Brown (Satyridae) family, were flying around on Crickley Hill too.

We moved on to Leckhampton Common and walked up by the Devil's Chimney where I saw Small Heath and Dingy Skipper butterflies.

Went on a butterfly walk led by Richard Palk of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust this morning. The weather wasn't promising: overcast and with a strong wind. However, we did see and photograph some butterflies.



Selsley Common has a colony of Small Blue butterflies. These are the smallest of the British butterflies.

Also in the same area were several Dingy Skipper butterflies - the first Dingy Skippers that I have ever seen.

The other butterfly flying about this morning was the Small Heath butterfly. As the name implies, it is a small butterfly but the Small Blue butterflies were tiny by comparison.

No butterfly photographs today but this:

A swarm of bees came to visit this afternoon and left as dramatically as they arrived.

It was a Small White butterfly day today. The first Small White was feeding on a yellow wallflower and then I found two Small White butterflies on the Sweet Rocket (Hesperis matronalis).

Also saw several Large White butterflies and in the distance, the blue wings of what was probably a Holly Blue butterfly.

A Large White butterfly stopped to feed on the giant ornamental allium today.



Also a Green-veined White butterfly was flitting around but too quick to get a photo. I did photograph a Pyrasta aurata moth though - the first that I've seen this year.

These are tiny day-flying moths. They like Thyme but this one was on Garlic Mustard.

My photos from my Northumberland holiday are now on-line (no butterfly pictures!)

A Holly Blue butterfly was on the Jack-by-the-hedge growing by the fence in my back garden this morning. Brown butterfly wings also passed me.



I saw several White butterflies passing through as I did some garden tidying this afternoon. Stopped for a cup of tea and saw a Peacock butterfly on my Ceanothus that I'd planted in the front garden.



Also saw a Brimstone passing over the back garden.

It has been sunny all week and I've seen White butterflies every day, but not in my garden; I've been on a touring holiday of Northumberland. I took 801 photographs but only two were of butterflies (poor pictures!); the best pictures will be available for viewing on the internet within a few days.

Walking through Sandford Park in Cheltenham this afternoon, I spotted a Speckled Wood butterfly and a male Orange Tip butterfly on Red Campion. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me - frustrating as the Orange Tip was resting with his wings open.
When I returned home, my husband had just been photographing a Holly Blue butterfly in the front garden and I saw one fly past at the back a few minutes later.

Yesterday, there were Large White, Green-veined White and Orange Tip butterflies in my garden.

Thanks to a helpful husband, here are the "lost" photos of the Holly Blue butterfly.

A number of male Orange Tip butterflies and female Holly Blue butterflies were to be seen in my garden today. At least one Large White and one Small White visited the Honesty too.

I took some nice photos of a female Holly Blue butterfly on the Firethorn (Pyracanta) bush. I think she was overpositing - egg-laying! However, I had one of those "I hate computers" moments when the software unexpectedly crashed and I lost all those photographs. I did get a photo of a male Orange Tip butterfly resting on a Forget-me-not.



I spent most of the day outside in the sunshine getting messy by cleaning the patios. Spread some chicken manure pellets around the base of the plants; the garden now has an interesting fragrance!



For regular readers of this journal, I thought I'd include a photo of me. My consultant was happy with my blood counts at the hospital clinic this last week.