Friday, 27 May 2011

Ox-Eye

Another walk around the lakes of Straw's Bridge this morning as there were a few spots of rain in the air and it didn't look very 'promising'.  The family of 10 ducklings are still in fine fettle on Swan Lake, but today, my eye was taken by the crop of Ox-eye Daisies (Leucanthemum vulgare).
Nodding in the wind, these delightfully colourful flowers are very common in Britain, but no less worthy of comment for that.
From a walk a couple of days ago, we also saw a beautiful Peacock Butterfly (Inachis io) on a Red Clover flower.
The name, Io comes from Greek Mythology.  Io was a Priestess of Hera in Argos.  Strangely enough, the first part of the butterfly's name, 'Inachis' is derived from the name of Io's father, Inachus, a river god.  Io was turned into a heifer by Zeus after he raped her.  Delightful!

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