Butterflies and a boletus

                       It is butterfly season and the hot sunny weather has made it a good one. All along the main track and into our wood the flowers are at their best and full of nectar. The Buddleia by the main gate is in full flower and a good place to see a variety of species, the heady scent of the blooms a great attractant. The perfume takes me back to my youth, butterfly catching with my pal David in waste ground near my home in Bromley. In those days we used to kill and set them to display pinned to a cork covered board. Nowadays no killing is involved, it is just photographs. Butterflies have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Feeling full of guilt in my late teens I destroyed my collection, now I wish I had not ! Fortunately, David kept his and I can still recall catching my own Red Admiral in Tiepig's Lane from seeing his labelled specimen. I still have my trusty butterfly net bought from Watkins and Doncaster's shop in Eltham as a reminder of those happy days, setting off on our bikes with killing bottles and snacks in our rucksacks.

                      Crow Wood's trees are reeling a little from all the recent heat and its birds are pretty quiet after nesting, but life there is with even the first toadstools appearing and Slow Worms hiding under stones. The rain forecast for this week will be very welcome.

Our main old oak is succumbing to more fungus attacks, a sign of its ill health and perhaps heat stress

A very tatty Speckled Wood....

A very early boletus, likely the Ruby Boletus

Teasels on the main track attract many butterflies, this is a Red Admiral

and here a Brimstone, one of 5 seen

A Common Blue on a Fleabane flower head

Comma

Peacock

Green-veined White

Gatekeeper

Hoverflies like Teasels too

A fine female Slow Worm, this one looks quite elderly but about to produce young. In the wild they can live for up to 30 years.