Framedlight

On Thursday Mairi and I went for a walk along the Lee Valley. The day was not sensational - overcast and muggy. The web site for the Lee Valley (http://www.visitleevalley.org.uk/en/content/cms/outdoors/walks-walking/walking-routes/) gives a number of walks and we chose a circular one, around 4 miles in length, about as much as the dog can do. We started off by the boat pool and ended up there again, after walking down the canal,  past Dobb's Weir and then through the new river path  and back via Broxbourne station. To start we saw a canal barge used for trippers and then, strangely, we passed a man unicycling down the tow path. At times the vegetation on the banks looked tropical.

A few photographs from London from a visit made with Mairi and Mike, her cousin from the US. There are three pictures of King's Cross Station, where there is the 'Harry potter Platform'. The last picture is from the courtyard at the V&A.

We found this poor thing on the patio.

At the end of last month we went for a walk round Fen Drayton Lakes in Cambridgeshire. It was a very hot day and the insects were out in force feeding from the thistles, which were plentiful. There was also an egret and a heron on the small lake. We saw a fallen willow tree, entirely covered with web from ermine moth caterpillars. Egret Common blue damsel fly Common blue damsel fly Web from ermine moths Common blue damsel fly Peacock butterfly Peacock butterfly Scarlet darters mating Comma butterfly Ermine moth tent Brimstone butterfly Ragwort field Reeds

These pictures were taken with a 50mm f/1.4 lens and extension tubes (50mm). I have processed them with Snapseed. The first is a chrysalis - I am afraid I cannot identify it, and then some agapanthus flowers and a hover fly.

I have seen lots of butterfly pictures taken recently - and the weather has certainly brought them out. This year I planted some verbena and scabious in the garden, the butterflies and bees love them and often chase each other off a particularly tasty bloom - the bees always win. Imagine me sitting on the grass in the warm sunshine toting my Sigma 400mm macro lens. I bought this last year for the princely sum of £250.00. It is a fairly hefty lens at 1.4kg, but has true internal focussing so that the barrel does not rotate when you focus. It also has a focus limiter switch on it to try to stop it hunting too much. Used at f8 or f11 it is pretty sharp. I think it must have been discontinued around 2006 and it has no vibration reduction. However for the money it is superb as I could never afford the Nikon equivalent. Here are the photographs - there are mainly cabbage whites, a gatekeeper, a peacock butterfly and a silver Y moth. A few bees are sprinkled in for good measure. The cabbag...