In the Garden

I have been confined to barracks for the last few weeks as the kitchen is undergoing a major overhaul. This, along with the dreadful weather of early June, has meant that I have had to content myself with brief spells in the garden. The highlight for me for most of May has been the sight of the male orange tip butterfly patrolling erratically along the flower borders looking for just the right flower. At times it would almost touch down on a white or red aquilegia but then decide to move on past the forget-me-nots and the white comfrey so loved by the bees but still does not stop. Finally he alights and the flower of choice is nearly always the purple honesty. The handsome male with his white and distinctive, orange tipped wings is easy to pick out but not so the female. One just one occasion I was lucky enough to see the male and female together, the female lacking the orange but has the same green and white patterning on the underneath of the hind wing.          

 Photo of orange tip on comfrey just to prove me wrong.

 

I also managed to get a couple of photos of a bee fly. Firstly, hovering to delicately feed from a forget-me-not and then later resting in the warm sunshine on the brickwork of the house.