Belton House is in the care of the National Trust. We broke our journey here for tea on the way up and for lunch on our journey south. The gardeners have taken care with their planting schemes, resulting in a good show of butterflies. I was particularly pleased to see Small Tortoiseshells as we have hardly found any 'red' varieties in our neck of the woods this summer, as those of you who read this blog regularly will know. But Small Torties were not the only ones taking advantage of the lavender beds...
We usually see plenty of Meadow Browns (below), but at least we saw two on this occasion.
It was terrific to see a pair of Green-veined Whites ...
... and another Small Tortoiseshell.
This young Fallow Deer stag bounded over in our direction while we were eating our picnic lunch, adding a moment of excitement to the last lap of our holiday.
In the hot weather it was a delight to amble around the fountain to the Orangery behind...
... where there was a small but rather lovely exhibition of items relating to Florence Woolward (1854-1936), an artist and botanical illustrator.
I'm afraid I have run very behind with these holiday posts since we have now been home for over a month! I hope you have found something of interest along the way.
I am sad to report that 'red' butterflies still seem very few and far between in our area. I have never seen so few Peacocks or Red Admirals in a summer. However, we were out and about here in Suffolk this afternoon and encountered about five Graylings, a species we seldom find, so that gave us a little boost ...
