Painted Lady

.........not me, the butterfly  ;-))

A lovely walk along the lanes to the woods and in one short stretch of wild flowers, only about 50m long I saw an incredible number of dragonflies, small insects and butterflies....including the beautiful Painted Lady in the blip and a White Letter Hairstreak (extra photo). 
The White Letter Hairstreak lives around Elm trees and numbers went into steep decline in the 70s and 80s with the event of Dutch Elm Disease.  They are now making a very slow but steady comeback so it is a real thrill to see one (a first for me ) but such a shame that the one in the photo seems to have lost part of it's lower wing.  It did however seem able to fly ok and it sat still for a few seconds while I got a photo, so it's all good then :-))