BUTTERFLIES AND BOB

Yesterday we had a visit from old friends - Bob, Helen and Val. He had been the head teacher of our three children's primary school.

There, of course, came the obligatory garden tour.

When we came to the buddleia hedge it was covered in butterflies - and HONEY BEES. It has taken long enough for the bees to find us this year.

These are the first seen.

As regards the butterflies the nettles in the corners have done their bit.

There were peacocks, red admirals and small tortoiseshells in abundance.

The painted ladies were here earlier in the year when a mass migration occurred from the south.

Sometimes the small tortoiseshell

caterpillars move in droves across the seating area outside the kitchen,

up the walls and into the roof to find a place to pupate and overwinter.

The garden has other butterflies - at least

three different whites (cover the brassicas),

speckled woods,

meadow browns, a few of those small brown ones I always find hard to

identify, and so on.

Perhaps it is time to get the book out and look more closely at what we actually

have.

In the spring, when the garlic mustard flourishes, there are orange tips. When I was a boy we always referred to garlic mustard by its other name - 'Jack-by-the-Hedge". What a strange name. I looked it up in Geoffrey Grigson's 'The Englishman's Flora'. (This is a wonderful book introduced to me by NC. It deals with the etymology of the flower names and folk traditions associated with them amongst other things.)

Other names for Alliaria petiolata include Beggarman's Oatmeal in Leicestershire and Pickpocket in Devon. Gerard's (of Herbal fame) recommends using in a sauce with salt fish.

I digress wildly!

Other more occasional visitors have included the comma, small copper, gatekeeper and one of the fritillaries.

It was an afternoon of good company and good chat and it was good to see old friends again.

They left with a marrow.