Day2Day - week 8 - Butterflies

This week has been rather OK-ish weatherwise so my garden surprise visitor (the Buddleia) has been covered in all sorts of wildlife including some butterflies I hadn't seen before so here they are!

Day 1 - a Large White Butterfly - I think it's the pattern on the wing tips that decide whether it's a large or small white one!

Day 2 - It's my tatty neighbour again from a previous week but I called it a tortoiseshell and it's not. It's a Comma, I think. I had another this week that I had never seen before so I had to look it up on Google. I found a lovely Butterfly identification site here and while I was looking, I saw this one there so managed to find out exactly what it was.

Day 3 - A Painted Lady - I knew straight away that I would need to ID this one - haven't seen it since either so I was really lucky that it stayed where it was long enough for me to run upstairs, grab my camera, change to my zoom lens and get some shots!

Day 4 - A Small Heath butterfly - another I had to look up. This was was wandering round Mum's coneflowers and I knew I didn't have time to run for the zoom lens so this is my everyday lens and a tight crop :)

And Day 5 - My favourite British butterfly - a Peacock. When we decided to let the weed grow that is now an 8ft Buddleia, I was secretly hoping for a summer full of butterflies. We had a huge dark purple one in our garden when I was a child and I was always fascinated by these lovely delicate creatures. This beauty has visited for the first time today - just in time to make me smile in the sunshine and to fill slot number 5 in my day2day post :)

I can't believe I've managed to keep this up for 8 weeks already. It seems like only a couple of weeks since we started but I'm really enjoying it so here's to the next 8 weeks! I guess it's going to be a lot harder during the winter due to lack of light but I'll just have to get my thinking cap on for some interesting Still Life shots, won't I?

Knickers Rule OK?

Friday nights the UK Etsy girls have a regular chat and so far, it's proving great for building my stash of great artwork. Now I've just got to get all these wonderful prints mounted and framed! Last Friday I managed to flog a pair of shoes I bought in lust but never wore. The wonderfully talented Bunny is going to work her magic on them and turn them into a really really kick ass pair of shoes. Have a look at her shop on Etsy to see what she does to them!

Not only does she customise shoes but she's also a really talented artist so when I had my pick of prints I chose her lovely Knickerville print. It was her entry to the UK Street Team Red Nose day challenge.

This morning the postie arrived with a decorated envelope so I sorta guessed who it was from :) but when I opened it, a mini stack of goodies fell out. Darling Bunny had added a couple of extra bits for me, including 'But I thought I was the prettiest...' a gorgeous print which I very nearly chose instead of Knickerville

So go have a look - you might find those shoes you've been looking for!