Seizing the day

What a fabulous day it was today. Warm, sunny and everything looking sparklingly fresh. I had a really long walk this morning and both dogs loved it. Near the end we went up to the viewpoint where the heather was fully out, distant trees had a very slight autumn tinge to them with many covered in red berries, and the hills - well the hills were looking magnificent as you can see. Bruce had a hair cut the other day and you can see that his markings are now much more obvious, in particular the three black spots on one side. While I was admiring the view before me had sniffed something in the tussocks and was busily digging away and Cara very quickly joined in the game; they quite often work as a team like this.

I spent hours in the afternoon sorting the garden and managed to tick a few things off my pre-holiday To-Do list while the dogs enjoyed having a lazy afternoon, lying in the sunshine and watching me work. I had to stop large branch pruning as the garden waste bin was full and gets emptied tomorrow so I even had time to put a first coat of Cuprinol on one side of my shed before I decided that enough was enough and I needed my supper.

Having seen my first peacock butterfly yesterday I saw two in different areas during my long walk and then saw three at one time feasting on the buddleia. One of them had different markings and I would be grateful if anyone could ID it for me. It isn't a great shot as it was quite windy and every time I snapped the shutter the wind had blown another leaf over the image! This was my fourth attempt. I don't think it is a female peacock, but I may be wrong.