Feeling blue

Blue has become a synonym for downbeat days but that's definitely not the case for me. It's always been my favourite colour, so today was a blue one in the best sense.

Firstly, our Morning Glories are coming into flower, perfect blue until lunchtime and then gradually developing the violet tinge and purple stripe as the afternoon goes on. And secondly, I had a gentle butterfly stroll along the edge of a neighbouring field and at last found a thoroughly co-operative Common Blue.

I collated four different pictures on Instagram - see top of the post - and here are some more of the butterfly, just above. What a lovely creature both on top and underneath. When they are flitting about they are, to coin a very hackneyed but accurate phrase, like little jewels.

Otherwise it has been an off spell for the moth trap thanks to wind and rain, and not a very happy one for our local wild life in general.  Pottering through a local spinney, I cam across this sad little dead shrew. And yet another bird strike on our upstairs windows claimed the life of this thrush.