Common Green Grasshopper

A beautiful summer day, filled with all those things that a summer day should be...

A garden overflowing with flowers and insects, including the very smart but highly aggressive European Woolcarder Bee, which has been a frequent visitor to the purple toadflax recently (see extra). This species gathers wool from the surface of furry leaves such as Lamb's-ears Stachys byzantina and False Dittany Ballota pseudodictamnus and uses it to construct its brood cells. 

A walk round a meadow filled with even more flowers and butterflies including Marbled White and Silver-washed Fritillary, as well as abundant Common Green Grasshoppers (which are actually very local round Peterborough and only found in the better quality ancient grasslands), here posing on a flower of Crested Cow-wheat. 

And a wonderful evening barbecue to celebrate Ben's birthday - 23 years old today! How did that happen?