A Red Admiral - You'd Better Salute!

 No more cellulitis, but training for a half marathon on the 16th August and trying to play cricket at the same time have given me the indignity of a pulled muscle in my left buttock, and the hot weather has been very enervating for both human and wildlife alike. And that's before we (won't) talk about the debilitating bouts of IBS. 

I have kept on doing "my thing", whatever that may be, and a lot of that has involved getting a tea from Greggs or some other quality outlet, and visiting Sconce Park or the library gardens to read, clear my head. 

I have upgraded my garden with the pollinator stepladder of delight, and the various wild buddleias that have sprung out of the ground have flowered to attract more buzzers and flutterers. I did have a star visitor though, a perfect red admiral butterfly who was delighted to present itself for my irritating mobile phone camera. 

I hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the world around you, scorched and brown though it is. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 31.07.26 

A Holly Blue and other Insects

 After the blistering heatwave, we've had a slightly more pleasant week so far, with me enjoying time in the library gardens, running slowly and stiffly, and playing cricket. 

The latter causing the former. 

My best encounter in this time was with a well behaved holly blue butterfly I came across in the currently very colourful library gardens. It has been so species rich in there this year, in an area about the size of two tennis courts. 

I love to sit there with a cup of tea and read, take photographs, do some sketching either "live" as it were, or from photos later, I've dabbled with waltercolour, wax pastel and soft pastel, with varying degrees of semi-competence. 

Been playing cricket again too after a long time, and golly my body hates me for it. It doesn't go well with half marathon training! 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 01.07.26 

Small Skippers Close the Butterfly Gap

 We have now emerged from the June butterfly gap, with the cooler weather of most of the month so far replaced with this savagely hot weather of the last few days. 

For those weeks, there was barely a butterfly to be seen, but now we are seeing the high summer species like meadow brown and ringlet in the air, and in the library gardens, a very fresh and confiding small skipper feeding off a cultivated campion. 

I spend a lot of time in the library gardens, with a tea or a cold drink, and love to take in the vivid colours while photographing the myriad of insect species that populate it. I sit and read, or sketch, and just take it all in. 

When you have Tourette's, you have to enoy the peaceful and colourful moments. 

Si 

All text and images copyright 25.06.26 

Bee Orchids Return to Campus

 They've been missing for a couple of years, but today, in the less than glamorous surroundings of a workplace smoking shed, that I came across some beautiful bee orchids in flower. 

I had been tipped off, and if it wasn't for my guide who took me there, I wouldn't have seen them in the longish grass. 

Relying on a species of bee you don't actually find in Britain to fall for their cunning apine ruse, they are self pollinating in this country, and are not uncommon. But still, I love finding them, after all they are an uncommon sight to me! 

It's been a day of intermittent heavy showers, with not much sun around until evening, but in a gap in the downpours, I came across a real bee, and a glittering swollen thighed flower beetle feeding of musk mallow that grows in a scrubby little spot next to a footpath. 

I wonder what a sunnier day will bring, as always. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 10.06.26 

Bumblebee Three Different Ways

 Struggling today with my various Tourettes and ASD associated symptoms - IBS, flaring eczema, rampant ADHD and all that stuff. 

We've been having more "Four seasons in one day" weather, and it was a brighter interlude that I got a decent capture of a buff tailed bumblebee feeding off bramble. 

In one of my fits of inspiration this evening, I decided to try and do a watercolour of it. I really am no kind of painter whatsoever, and I've never found a way of doing it that works. For this attempt, I decided to outline the subject matter in fineliner pen, before filling in with watercolours from my travel paint set. 

Not sure this has worked. 

In a flying flap of creativity, I then doubled down and did a soft pastel version which I am much more happy with, happy in the sense of not wanting to throw it on a bonfire in the morning. 

I suppose this is neurodiversity in manic action, I guess. I've started creating work relating to my Tourettes, but golly lolly gee, I won't be posting that here. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 04.06.26 

Painted Ladies all over the Place!

 For those of you who do so, monitoring the feeds of nature lovers on social media will soon show you what an amazing spring it has been for painted lady butterflies. 

Small tortoiseshells - not a sausage. Painted ladies - a who hog roast.

The library gardens nature reserve has them feeding off the meadow clary, they flutter by at sconce park, pale orange in the save sunshine we've been having, and they are all over our work campus, where dogwood seems to be their food plant of choice. 

I remember a late summer pre-pandemic - gosh how that defines so many things - when we had a huge late summer migration of painted ladies and I saw a fair few around, but not as many as this. 

I wonder where they have come from. Is there an El Nino connection or something else of an arcane nature? 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 27.05.26 

The Weather Warms, More Appears

 I'd been wondering where all the red tailed bumblebees have been this spring; I've not been able to photograph one, and have barely seen any at all. 

Today, as the weather warmed and brightened in the afternoon, they were suddenly everywhere in the nature garden area of campus. 

After a disastrous 2025, the mini meadows have recovered somewhat, and today buttercups were attracting many of these velvety, firey-tailed worker bumbles. 

Nearby, on the rock cransebill, a big queen red tailed bumble was at work, her mighty body bending the delicate stems of these flowers almost onto the ground. It's a relief to see them on the wing again. 

Nearby, found a lovely holly blue butterfly too. 

Around campus there are currently many clumps of ox eye daisies, and one one of these sunshine-meets-fried-egg flowers, I came across another welcome returnee - the characterful and glittering swollen thighed flower beetle. 

They are wonderful little insects, and I hope you have met one too this spring! 

Si 

All images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 22.05.26 

A Quick Bit of Butterfly Love

 So many reports of large numbers of painted ladies being seen around the UK this spring, and I can certainly confirm that I've seen a couple. 

More than I can say for small tortoiseshells, which seem to have had a disastrous winter hibernation season. 

This individual was lurking among the cotoneaster bushes on campus, you'd think they's stand out a mile, but they really don't until they move. They are so beautiful, and I love the fact that their latin name is "Vanessa"!

The second butterfly is a female orange tip, and like other species that have spent the winter as pupae, they seem to have done much better than the early rising imagos. I've seen plenty flying around, and this one was in the library nature reserve, and unlike most orange tips was actually rather easy to photograph! 

Hopefully you are all seeing some lovely butterflies about. 

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 12.05.26 

Rock Cranesbill Love

 On our campus, in the little nature reserve area I and others created many years ago, there is a patch of rock cranesbill growing happily away next to a hawthorn hedgerow. 

They are now blooming pinkily resplendent, and as such are a big attraction for pollinators. 

I saw three different species of bumblebee in short succession yesterday - a common carder, a buff tail and an early bumblebee - while today brought a tiny worker common carder in its distinctive golden furry coat. 

Lots of honey bees also flying around and I caught a glimpse of a red tailed bumblebee queen, the first I have seen this spring. Rather worried about their numbers after the wet winter. 

In other news, my local swift colonies are returning, and I'm starting to hear screeching...

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 06.05.26 

Sketching Again - Have a Look

 God bless The Works. It has brought me a large amount of art supplies for very little money, because me spending more than a fiver on pastels and paints is a complete waste of money. 

I like my pastels and black paper the best, as they seem to give the most vivid results. I choose local subjects, working in life or from my own photos.

I know I'm no artist, but I find it really helps my brain to concentrate on art for a few minutes. It helps my Tourettes for those periods, maybe helps with motor co-ordination. . Also, it's something to add to my creative archive. 

And I just like filling books with stuff. I can never have too many notebooks. I might time capsule them somehow. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.04.26

More Library Critters

 Yesterday we had sunshine, but it wasn't super warm. Indeed, as soon as the sun went behind a cloud, it was three layers time again. 

But this lower ambient temperature has a big advantage for us nature photographers, especially those of us who have a mobile phone rather than a £600 DSLR. It slows the fast moving solitary bees down enough so we can get enough close to them to have a hope of getting a half decent shot. 

Such as it was when I went on patrol in the wildflowers in the wildflower gardens. And on the wildflowers, the bees were having a bit of a rest. 

There were nomad cuckoo bees, small and normally so fast on the wing you can barely follow them. A red mason bee, taking its time on a buttercup. Various mining bees were chilling out, and even a hairy footed flower bee was taking a break in the red dead nettles. 

They all had a mobile phone poked at them. 

The results came out ok, I suppose. I hope you like them anyway. 

Si 

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 20.04.26