The Last Admiral

We are looking carefully at our weather apps each day, to work out when it may not be raining. It is that sort of holiday.

We spent the morning and early afternoon at Topsham, which is a delightful place by the Exe Estuary. The RSPB has a reserve at Bowling Green Marshes, at a lookout overlooking the estuary a Red Admiral alighted on the information board. Will this be the last butterfly I see this year ?

An extra is three bar tailed godwits feeding on the estuary. Heavily cropped so they are visible, but acceptable to my eyes.

A wetter afternoon. We spent most of it at A La Ronde, a unique National Trust property, as it has only once had a male owner in 200 years. Two cousins, Mary and Jane Parmenter, were sent on the Grand Tour of Europe in the late 18th century to seek husbands. But they returned even more independent minded than when they left and kept their inheritance to themselves. The house was designed to their specification, and is full of things they made themselves. It is 16 sided, with an octagon at its core, full of shells and feathers. The extra is a little section of frieze - in one room these provide a cornice edging the ceiling and surrounding doors and fireplaces. Handmade and constructed entirely of feathers (pheasant and magpie here I think).

A leaky roof has to be repaired, so the NT has had to search for scaffolders able to construct a 16 sided scaffold. That is unique in itself (extra).