The breeder of the Large Copper butterfly

Rather later than anticipated I went to Stratford Park where the Stroud festivals were being held; a rather strange amalgam of the Festival of Food, the Walking Festival, Eco Homes and the Festival of Nature. The town council provides some funds for the festivals and I always like to see how they are received. As I was late arriving the possible throngs had thinned, but there was still a good attendance.

I strolled about and found useful information and was tempted by the food tents and the various smells emanating. Lots of young people seemed to be enjoying eating non-fast food which I was pleased to note.

I had a long chat with Richard and Kel, who are founder members of Walking theLand, a local group who create artworks inspired by walking. I contributed to a map they were creating onsite of peoples' views about the local landscape using a map on which we could mark our favourite walks, woods, places to play and other uses we have for the land. This is being developed with the Cotswold Conservation board, who look after the wide Cotswold Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the AONB, and I had a useful long chat with their leader too.

Then I found this man sitting behind his black butterfly cage on a small table with his collection of Large Copper butterflies that he had bred. They were beautiful although rather sleepy in the cool of the shade of the trees. Another photographer had taken pride of place and unzipped a small hole in the cage to shoot with his macro lens on a tripod, but I managed to sneak a couple of pictures of these rather rare insects, which you can just see dotted around the cage.

I have added a close up of this beautiful Large Copper on my Blipfolio here