TOO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!

What do Blippers do when there are too many photographs to choose from - they make a collage!  After watching our live streamed Church service on Facebook, we went out for a short drive into the beautiful Wiltshire countryside.

We had just arrived at the spot where we decided to have our picnic, on a byway between Winterbourne Bassett and Broad Hinton, when Mr. HCB mentioned that two motorbikes were driving along the byway behind us.  One passed us and carried on and then Mr. HCB shouted that one had come off and we could see he was sprawled on the ground.  It’s very uneven and stony and although it’s quite narrow, the motorbike was still on the byway but the driver had been thrown onto the grass.  We quickly got out of the car and Mr. HCB ran to see if the driver was all right.  The man said he was very shaken and no doubt he will have a few bruises tomorrow, but he said he felt fine.  When his friend came back to find out where he was, we were surprised to note that they were both in their fifties - so not two reckless young drivers!  Fortunately, he was able to start his motorbike, once he had walked around a bit, and off they went.

We then finished our picnic and walked along the byway, but we didn’t go that fast because there were such a lot of butterflies and insects to see on the various plants and wild flowers along the way.  We saw man walking towards us with his dog, but there was plenty of room for us to be physically distanced from him.  We stopped to pass the time of day with him, telling him how we loved to come out walking and had no desire to go to the pub now they were open.  As he left he said, “You’re both looking well, so whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it right!”  What a lovely compliment. 

I couldn’t decide which one to use as my main photograph, so made a collage.  We were amazed to see hundreds of black caterpillars on the nettles and when I checked Mr. Google, think that they are Peacock caterpillars because we did see lots of Peacock butterflies around - and you can see a most beautiful one as the main photograph at the bottom left.  Eggs are laid by the female in batches of about 200 and hatch about 10 days later, feeding in silken tents, as you can see.  We stood for quite some time watching them writhing about and apparently, this action with their mass of spines, frightens off any would be predators, although many are eaten by spiders and wasps.

We saw lots of beetles in various colours and I was happy to forget about Derelict Sunday, and take lots of photographs of these, as well as ladybirds, so have included these in my collage.

At the bottom of the collage, we believe the butterflies are from the top left going clockwise : Comma, Tortoiseshell, Ringlet and Small Skipper all very beautiful in their own way.

Mr. HCB was content to use his binoculars to track the swallows and swifts that were dipping and diving over the cornfield nearby and although it was very windy, it was lovely to watch the corn swaying in the wind.  We really are grateful that we live in such a beautiful county and although we were able to look up to the Hackpen White Horse, we had no desire to go up there - Mr. HCB said there were lots of cars parked on the Ridgeway, but we were quite happy to wander on our own - in fact, we only saw two other people whilst we were walking.

“When you find yourself cocooned in isolation 
     and you cannot find your way out of darkness…
          remember, this is similar to the place 
               where caterpillars go to grow their wings.” 
Necole Stephens