Zoom

Briefly settling among the Rose of Sharon or Hypericum is a Meadow Brown butterfly which are on the wing from June to August but before I could zoom in any further it had flown on its busy way to make the most of summer.  These little brown butterflies are quite similar to the Gatekeeper butterfly but can be distinguished by the fact that they have only one dot in their wing 'eye' whereas the Gatekeeper has two.

I imagine the dots on these rhododendron would identify them but all I know is I thought them pretty as I zoomed in for a closer look.

This is the nearest I could find to a letter Z in my collection for the last letter of the alphabet

which warns that one could by zapped by electricity if vaulting over the fence, not only that but the double helix sign warns that the "premises are marked by a security system using a DNA system" so when laying comatose or dead  perhaps one would be adding even more DNA.

Stay safe, heed the warning, but don't ignore the post box for sending words on paper 

but for those in electronic format next week's post will be in the new home of ABC Wednesday hosted by Melody so the invite is for everyone to zoom over there and zap in your entry on July the 12th and begin the  21st Round of ABC Wednesday.  

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet this week  for the last time at Z here

Flowers in Season

Taking a stroll through a summer garden with a seat placed to enjoy the flowers and the day.

Sizergh Castle

But the flowers don't only live in gardens,  here they tumble down steps

the little daisies flowering in profusion. Those who know tell me their name is actually Erigeron karvinskianus, maybe daisy is easier to say.

Flowering Currant

 A bee immerses itself in these April flowers and almost becomes part of them, just the start of its busy year.

This was the last butterfly I saw last year, a small tortoiseshell making the most of the late flowers in October.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at F here

Sunbathing

Tulips opening their petals to the max and enjoying the sun

Flora and Fells

February, the month when by imperceptible degrees the days start to lengthen and someone, well yes I mean me, is taken by surprise by the time, 5 O'Clock and still light, yay.

The snowdrops are in full flower and the daffodils are long green shoots and just waiting for their moment in the sun.  Now is the time I like to look forward to the year ahead and wonder what new things I will see, what the year's weather will be like and

Small White (Pieris rapae) on buttercups

dream of the warmer days to come when fluttering wings will be in fields and hedgerows landing on flowers and the

ferns will be unfurling. The latter perhaps I'm fonder of in photogenic clumps rather than in whole impenetrable swaths of fell-sides as they can make finding a pathway through rather testing at times.  All this is in the future and at the moment there are chilly winds 

Coniston Old Man

but the only snow we have had this year floated down onto the fells so we had the pretty views without the icy roads.

Swans on Coniston Water

In the first week of February the day that was so still that Coniston Water had not a ripple on it, only the ones made by these swans.  This is also the very last photo taken by my camera for like a boxer with a glass jaw it has taken many knocks and bruises to its body and shrugged them off but did not survive its careless owner putting it in her coat pocket with a bunch of keys and damaging the screen. The finish for this trusty little Panasonic.  (The photograph of the snowdrops at the beginning of the post is the first I've taken with my new camera, it will probably take me the rest of the year to get to grips with it, thank goodness there is always auto).   

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at F here

Jardiniere and Jalopy

Sailing by Harrington Harbour

Flowers in July planted by the Church Road Youth Club in what one could loosly term a  jaunty jardinière near the jetty,  but now landlocked forever.

Which is the only place for a Jaguar car seen here in the Lakeland Motor Museum a jumble of cars, bicycles and motor bikes. Down the side are shops recreating displays from the 1950s and 60s

Did I mention they also have lots of antique signs?  John Bull, a national personification of Britain was the name used by the Leicester Rubber Company (1906-1955) who produced tyres for all vehicles as well as that essential for the cyclist, the tyre repair kits.

which came in little tin boxes and much larger ones for those with horsepower:-

Photo from The Vintage Knitter's   'Tin of the Week'

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet,  this week sojourning at J here

Life and Death

A profusion of crocus covers St Andrew's churchyard in Coniston at the moment. It is a churchyard with many interesting and ornate gravestones, mostly on the other side of the church to this view, but the star of the show at the moment are the flowers.  No wonder John Ruskin opted for this peaceful place in the shadow of Lakeland hills to Westminster Abbey as his final resting place. 

Wisteria by Windows and Water

Flowers line the walls of Blackwell, a house designed in the Art and Crafts style. As it is June the Wisteria is in full bloom, glimpsed here through one of the small stained glass windows.  For an expansive view of the surroundings one can walk over

and sit on a window seat to gaze over the lake.  This particular day was overcast but with little wind.

Windermere was like glass, the only ripples from the small boats sailing along.

A more rustic view of Wisteria on a country cottage. Patience is required when growing this plant and though it thrives on neglect it does demand regular pruning. Grown from seed it can take 20 years to bloom, from a grafted plants it may only be a couple of year although it took a friends seven years to flower.  It was worth the wait seeing it spill over and through their pergola. Perhaps in a 100 years it may end up like this one.

St Bees Head

And lastly a winding coastal path on top of the cliffs of St Bees weaving its way through bluebells which I include because I am amazed they are still with us a month after they have usually long gone, the  result of late blooming after the coldest spring for 50 years.  I wonder what they think of the June sunshine. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a wander through the alphabet

Blue and White

Bluebells Amongst the Stitchwort

As the bluebells starts to stir early in the year their purpose is to flower before the other woodland plants.  Not this year, they weren't for stirring.   Here we are in June and there are still some stragglers flowering.

June Flowers

Foxgloves, beloved of bees whose favourite colour is purple, are out in profusion in my favourite month - June, the air is warm, the countryside has exploded into colour and the hedgerows hide the little

wild geraniums,

 wild roses twine through the hedges

Heath Spotted Orchid

 

 

 

and it is the peak season for the Heath Spotted Orchid which loves the bog land and marshes. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish it from the Common Spotted Orchid for they can hybridise and sometimes they are just

tricky to spot hidden among the jumble of grasses

The wild jostles with the manicured golf course

This clipped lawn is for play (there is a football net out of sight behind me to the right)  but there is enough room for a rhododendron

 and of course no garden is complete without roses.  It is also the best place to sit out and eat the June's early

English strawberries. Not the supermarket ones grown to be robust for transport and tasteless but the sharp, sweet and delicate local ones. I've cheated with this photograph because they are not English strawberries as it is Antwerp Railway Station in Belgium where they are selling Strawberries dipped in a big vat of chocolate however look there is someone walking past wearing a Union Jack jumper. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday - a journey through the alphabet

 

ABC Wednesday - Holiday

 Fancy a stay in a holiday cottage in the Lake District?  Here is one at Skelwith Bridge complete with bird feeder.  Enjoying walking holidays I have stayed in numerous holiday cottage at home and abroad and always enjoy their variety and more often than not their quirkiness.  I only picked up on the holiday cottage notice after I took the photo because it was the architectural detail of the

 chimneys that peaked my interest.  That it was a warm summer's day can be seen from the windows being open. If  hotel accommodation is the preference a walk around the corner to the

 Skelwith Bridge Hotel with happily for this ABC post a hydrangea, I think most gardens in this country have a variety of these easy going plants somewhere and they were very popular where we were on holiday last year in France, even appearing painted on a

mail box.  In France they call the plant by a more romantic name, Hortensia, a girls name that has fallen out of use in Britain since Victorian times, the names given meaning is 'garden'.  Although the next photo I took in Skelwith Bridge didn't have a garden in sight just woods and hills, I was still looking at chimneys

On summer days a popular place for visitors and holiday makers to sit are the flat rocks by the riverbank  at the place that gives the hamlet its name

Skelwith Bridge.

An entry to ABC Wednesday Round 10, a journey through the alphabet