This morning in the sun walking through areas of wildflowers and hedges the insects were out in droves.

Butterflies – clouded yellow,orange tip and common blue.

Damselflies- lots but one I haven’t seen here before with a distinctive blue band at the base of the abdomen called blue tailed Damselfly (Ischnura elegant)

Bees- honey bees and bumble bees all busy on the masses of comfrey with pollen baskets full.

Beetles- two brightly coloured looking at identification the first one stenocorus meridianus the second really red colour – investigating.

In a small area the amount of activity on the plants was huge . I would like to sit for an hour and count insect visitors to one small area.. sounds like a project.

I am drawn to this ancient long barrow on the Cotswolds. Earlier in the year I stopped on my journey because it was covered in beautiful cowslips.

Yesterday a revisit was needed , this time it was covered in cow parsley wild strawberries, vetches, speedwells ( birdseyes we used to call them) herb Robert and stitchworts to name a few. while walking to it the mound there were beautiful wild geraniums in the verges (hedgerow cranesbill).

The skylarks were singing but unfortunately they were competing with shotguns which sounded very close . On the way home we noticed that opposite in the valley there is a shooting events area. Hopefully next visit there won’t be an event on .

An amazing photo sent by a Nature Table Explorer in Sussex.

This dragonfly was emerging inside the chicken shed. Hopefully it flew out safely , escaping any hungry chickens.

The size of its eyes are amazing. Dragonflies and damselflies are really catching my interest this year.

Yesterday spotted a four spotted chaser while out walking .

After thunderstorms and torrential rain in the morning the afternoon was warm and full of blue skies.

This area in the Forest of Dean near an old gold mine is like a page from a fairytale. The stream rushes through gorgeous woodland with incredible ferns . It felt like we could meet an elf at any point!

All of a sudden bushes are covered in cuckoo spit. This is the foamy substance secreted by the nymphs of froghoppers. The foam is made from the sap eaten by the nymphs and is a form of protection from predators.

Cuckoo spit gets its name because it can be seen at the same time that cuckoos are heard.

Froghoppers are a member of the Homopteran family which includes aphids. The adults are well camouflaged and can jump really well,many times their own size,hence their name.They use both these strategies to avoid predators.

In the evening sun a huddle of baby spiders on a fence caught my eye. Perfect yellow spiderlings some with a distinctive black spot. These will grow into garden spiders. When they were laid in the Autumn the adult spider stayed with the sac until she died, the young spiders hatching now and soon to be off. When the silken threads are touched they all disperse at high speed but then come back together again into the centre. I have taken some photos and a little video.

Here are two fantastic snails caught mid slide by a keen eyed nature table explorer from Chepstow.

These Banded snails come in a wide range of colours . These two are really bright and lovely.

A Nature table explorer badge is heading to Chepstow . Thanks

Gorgeous sun, the air is full of tree fluff from the willows looking magical. The ox eye daisies are glorious. Bees are still patrolling the flowers ,there are clouds of insects going about their business and the birds are singing . Perfect

A walk in Rockingham Northamptonshire. The stone used to build the houses is Jurassic in age 190-145 million years old .it is full of wonderful colours structures and in some places fossils.

Iron sandstone from the Northamptonshire sand formation has been used to build the houses here,some of this is calcareous and some sandy, some are built using Cottingham stone.

If you spend some close up time looking veins and areas of iron can be seen along with fossil bivalve shells.

I will definitely go for a walk along the signposted Jurassic way path .

We walked past some fishermen on the lake quietly going about their fishing and thought nothing of it. On returning from our walk I was totally amazed by the incredible fish, a carp that they had caught.

The fish was beautiful gorgeous scales , they were keeping it alive and taking real pleasure from seeing this amazing creature from the lake.

It weighed 23 pounds ! I was amazed by this they had caught one from the large lake that weighed 40 pounds. Last night amazed by this wonderful specimen I looked up the heaviest carp caught in the U.K. it was a staggering 67 pounds and 8 oz.

I love the fact that these brilliant creatures are in our lakes and waterways , recently while looking down into the big lake at Rushden from the boardwalk we saw an enormous Pike!

Interestingly the fishermen said that otters that are found at these lake would take a carp as large as the one I saw.

It was a lovely surprise to see this fish and to meet the two passionate and interesting fishermen who were really knowledgable and keen to share information and who seemed genuinely chuffed that some other people also liked their fish .

The fish went back In the lake happy and ready to get bigger … and bigger !!