Eyeballed

..by a small tortoiseshell.

So today I actually saw a butterfly which was willing to stop and pose for me.  It felt quite odd being watched this intently, but I was very grateful, the number of butterflies I've seen this year are still so few.

I rather fear it's sitting on Hemlock Water Dropwort (conium crocata) but I imagine s/he must be immune to that.

This was taken early in the reserve while the sun was out for a couple of hours.  I went round to the Durngate entrance because the - frankly rather boring - Cheese & Chilli Festival was on in the park and blocking my usual entrance.  I had meant to take just a quick look then go into town for people shots, but having blipped this beauty I simply turned round and went home for a breakfast.

I spent quite a lot of the rest of the day slavering over plants I might buy to reconstruct part of the planting at the end of my garden.  Not something I do often so it's quite exciting..

Hope you've all had/are having a lovely Sunday and that the week starts well for you  xx