Mother name it seems is partial to details. It seems a little unfair that this beautiful butterfly would be called the “common blue”. In flight it appears to be a bit of summer blue sky (particularly the males which are bluer than the females photographed below).
Common blue
But at rest you see these stunning patterns of the under wing.
Common blue
Cross Beach, Belmullet
Back to my own garden this week for six on Saturday. There is a lot going on so it is hard to know what to choose.
2. RINGLET: Ringlet butterflies are also doing well this year and are loving the wildflower meadow.
Ringlet
3. WORCESTER BERRIES: It is not a great fruit year for us (we’ve no apples or plums because of late frosts) but we do have some berries. Here Worcester berries (cross between gooseberry and blackcurrant).
WORCESTER BERRIES
4. CAMPANULA. Campanula (bellflowers) are one of my favourite summer flowers. These ones grow to about 1m tall and do suffer a bit of wind damage, but always give a great display of colour.
Campanula
5. VERBENA: I grew this from seed a couple of years ago and really like the way the tall stalks rise above all the other flowers in the flower bed.
Verbena
6. BORAGE: I grow borage in the vegetable plot where it self-seeds. This is another great bee plant.
Borage
This week’s Lens-artist photo challenge is a special one as they are celebrating their first anniversary! So the choice is ours – so I thoughts I would post some photos of our recent visit to Wales.
Friendship – we made a new friend in Charlotte at Old Oak Barn, the self catering accommodation we stayed at. Charlotte has a beautiful garden and was so generous with her time, even sending me home with some seeds gathered from her garden to try. You can see more about Charlotte’s garden here.
Charlotte’s Garden
Imagination – The National Botanic gardens of Wales is full of imaginative planting, beautiful sculptures and of course fabulous plants and flowers.
Connected – Wales is very well connected with its history, with many wonderful castle to visit and explore.
Wales is a lovely country full of great places to visit and friendly people.
Thank you to the Len-artists of their year of photo challenges. I look forward to the coming year.
Water Lily
We have just returned from our annual trip to Wales to see my husband’s family. When there, I always like to include a garden visit, and this year we were in for an extra treat as we stayed at self-catering accommodation at the Old Oak Barn, near St Clears, where we got to enjoy Charlotte’s garden every day.
Charlotte’s Garden
Charlotte has the most beautiful flower garden, but she also grows vegetables (which we also got to enjoy). Her garden is a riot of colour, form and scent.
Charlotte’s Garden
So I thought for this week’s Six on Saturday I would share some of the highlights from her garden.
Cosmos
2. Charlotte grows in mixed beds of flowers and vegetables. Every looks so healthy. And the lettuce and peas were delicious.
Vegetables
3. She had a couple of different poppies, which self-seed around the garden including this dark one and this really flouncy one.
4. She has beautiful roses, here are just two examples.
5. And her lupins, like my own, are popular with the bees.
Bee on lupin
6. She also grows teasel, which is another great wildlife plant being good for bees and later on for birds who will eat the seeds.
Teasel
So that is my six and to finish just a few general photographs of Charlotte’s lovely garden. We all really enjoyed our stay at the Old Oak Barn and would recommend it for anyone looking for Self catering Accommodation in Wales. For more information you can following the link:
rose
