Comma - first sighting this year

... accompanied by a small tortoiseshell, which is usually the commonest of the coloured garden butterflies.  I may have seen tortoiseshells early in the season - they can appear from March, but there have been no sightings at all of them in our garden this summer.

Usually we see a fair number of comma butterflies, but not this year.

I've enjoyed my half an hour in the garden photographing insects - the Carder bee in action was a bonus.

A bit of yhouse tidying earlier followed by an hour or so in the garden.  I've finally taken the bean sticks down - I've never failed to grow beans before and I've been planting them ever since I came here.  I think I'll need to re-dig the trench and fill it with compost, manure and torn newspaper again.  It's been so dry this year.  If I did it now the manure would have chance to rot down and not be too toxic.

John D working across the road, so it was good to catch up with him and it also meant I could ask him about a job I have in mind.