Purple Emperor

I didn't wake up very early today...still felt tired most of the day, and I hadn't planned to do very much at all. There are no trains on Sunday, so I couldn't go to my Mum and Dad's. Jeri ran an ultra-marathon yesterday (55 miles!) and I'd wrongly assumed she'd be staying overnight where the race was held, and Brian went birding this morning.

I ended up having to go out to Tesco though, as my blender overheated and stopped working! It has been playing up for a while! I have a nice shiny new one now that comes with its own smoothie/juice bottles!

Then Brian came home and said that birding was a waste of time, he'd seen nothing close enough to photograph it and did I want to go for a drive to Chambers Wood. I like it there, so off we went. 

We were surprised to hear people say that there were Purple Emperor butterflies around, as we thought it was a bit early for them, but sure enough we did see some, and here's a shot of one! The purple is iridescent, and only shows up when the light is on it from the correct angle. My extra shows what it looks like when it's not at the right angle!

I'd always thought beautiful butterflies glided around among leaves and flowers, and nibbled on them for nourishment. Not so! They eat dog-shit!! This is also evident in my second shot! It was a great surprise to me...I see them in a slightly different way knowing that!

By the time we were finished at Chambers, it was late  in the afternoon and we were starving, so had a late lunch at Burger King!

Home now, and I'm doing nothing strenuous for the rest of the night now!