The butterfly farm

'Lazy Sunday afternoon' (The Small Faces 1968) rang through my head appropriately today.  We had decided to go to Berkeley Castle in the Severn Vale, close to the River Severn, for another visit to the butterfly farm built in the grounds of the 13th century edifice.  Helena requested a diversion on the way, via Gloucester, some miles to the north, as she had spotted a special offer of a cheap wetsuit which she wants for our seaside holiday.

Having bought the wetsuit I drove south down the old Roman road towards Bristol and then branched off for the last couple of miles to Berkeley.  The butterfly farm opens from May to October and will be fully stocked within a month, when the current insects have produced offspring.

I know very little about insects, and butterflies in particular. These ones are housed in a well heated greenhouse offering near tropical conditions, which had me sweating profusely in the high humidity and temperatures.  It was rather busier than I'd hoped, as my last visit near the end of last season allowed me complete access on my own for hours at a time.

I will return as I didn't manage to film the butterflies in flight as much as I wanted.  I took a lot of pictures, and  have chosen this one, which Helena liked too.  I'll probably assemble a Flickr gallery of the others, maybe tomorrow.  In the meantime i hope you like this unknown type sitting feeding just before taking off for another circuit of the greenhouse, with me in tow.

EDIT:
I have added three more images to the 'Extra photos', below as I think you will like them too.