What a difference a year makes!

The herbaceous bed at Cannon Hall is full of these brightly coloured Inulas. Last year, when I walked down the row with my camera it was covered in bumblebees, many of which were cuckoo bees. This year it seemed to be a mix of Horse flies and Hoverflies. There do seem to be far less bumblebees around this year though they were still fairly active on the lavender inside the walled garden. (One suggestion I read about (I think on the web) is that because of the warmer weather this year the bees have nested earlier so there are less of them around at the moment.) Butterflies in the walled garden included small tortoiseshell, a peacock and a comma. I never seem to be able to photograph commas successfully and always get white patches on the edge of their wings. I'm coming to the conclusion that some of these wing cells must reflect back the light, though I've seen them successfully photographed elsewhere. It wasn't just insects enjoying the warm weather yesterday and we spotted lots of families encamped across the open grassland enjoying a picnic and summer games.