more bees knees

another variant bee, type unknown, resting on old flower head of knapweed.

rooks over Rezare

There is a line in a poem by Ted Hughes about rooks circling like the sweep of a broom, not that I can find any reference to it.They are just visible in this photo as the black speckles. I think they do it for the fun and pure joy of it.

brimstone at the trough

a male brimstone butterfly, refuelling on knapweed. I find the detail in the wing fascinating, it looks so exactly like a leaf.

canine snigging

doing a Spot of snigging, while those who should be snigging plod wearily home

blue bees and angelica

a striking blue and black bee, feeding on wild angelica. I am not sure what sort of bee it is but there are a lot of them in the woods at present. Angelica seems to attract a very wide range of flying insects. There also appears to be a minute winged insect sitting on the bee's left wing.

lynher valley white water surfing

here we are shooting down the Lynher, which is usually quite a quiet river. Even Harriet had a go, and then tried drowning


and had to be rescued by her heroic brother (me, Spot that is).



Afterwards the girls posed for a photo; mum is wearing her swimming costume, and Hari is just quivering in the background.