Better Day

Following the very sad occasion yesterday, of the funeral of our good friend Winifred, we cheered ourselves up with a walk around Shipley Lake this morning.
The Blackberry crop is just beginning to ripen in the hedgerows so we took a couple of small bags with us to collect a few of these delicious fruits.  On our travels we were delighted to see lots more butterflies than we've become used to seeing of late.  The Peacock Butterflies (Inachis io) are particularly common at the moment, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight of hundreds and hundreds of them, feeding on a bank of Creeping Thistles.  Sadly, photographs couldn't do the scene justice, but the sight was simply breathtaking.
Along the same stretch of pathway, the Great (or Large) Bindweed (Calystegia silvatica) flowers were opening their huge trumpets for bees to enjoy.

Everything seems to be 'Great' in the countryside right now and further along, vast stands of Great Willowherb (Epilobium hirsutum) were also in full flower.

Smaller in size and fewer in number, but no lees impressive were the flowers of the Great Burnet (Sangquisorba officinalis).