Before The Rain

The July day started off breezy & by early morning the temperature had only climbed to 13ºC, a temperature not unknown in January in this part of the UK. I walked with my daughter to the village school but decided to take the long way back through fields & woodland. A dog walker passed comment that it was “quite a pleasant morning” & it was, especially when the sun shone through gaps in the clouds. Rain was forecast for later so it was time to enjoy any sunshine there was.

I headed towards the wood and found a hedgerow sheltered from the wind. There were lots of butterflies fluttering about in the sunshine, in this little area it was more like a July day. Most of them were Meadow Browns.

There were also Gatekeepers

& Green-veined whites

Moving on I changed my route through the wood to a path that caught some sunshine, past flowering Agrimony.

A grey squirrel decided to pose for a photo rather than do the usual thing of running up the nearest tree.

Further up I spotted another species of butterfly, the Ringlet.

Time then to leave the wood and make the short walk home, arriving there as the first rain started falling.