Despite the recent bad weather, we seem to have had some lovely butterflies in the last few sunny days, so Steve took their portraits and has posted an album of them –
http://www.blasdale.com/blog/picture-albums/blasdale-picture-gallery-2009/2009butterflies/
We have yet to add their names – Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Red Admirals (is one just faded into that “Orange” Admiral?), Comma, Painted Lady.
The weekend of 7th-9th August saw us meeting up in Essex with friends from Steve’s university days.
This year from our base in a quiet country village courtesy of our hosts, Richard & Andrea, we visited Frinton-on-Sea and honed our sandcastle building techniques before a visit to Beth Chatto’s Gardens. Richard & Andrea had done their usual brilliant organization, including a Community mini-bus, and had topped it all with wonderful sunny weather.
Rather a lot of talking, drinking & eating was done, but it made a splendid weekend and photos can be found at https://www.blasdale.com/blog/picture-albums/blasdale-picture-gallery-2009/sadgits/ The leading lady is Andrea and the house, in Frinton, is where Richard’s grandparents had lived and hence his knowledge of that quintessentially English seaside town.