Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.
Henry David Thoreau

On Saturday I went on a macro photography workshop at a nearby nature reserve Langford Lakes. It was a revelation. I have always enjoyed watching and photographing butterflies but had not realised how many other stunningly beautiful creatures there are out there vying for our attention. However before you can see you need to look, and in looking move slowly through the world. Our leader for the day was wildlife photographer Iain Green who introduced, what was for some of us at least, a new wonderland.

Fat-legged Garden Beetle on a Briar Rose

I love the iridescence of this garden beetle and the way in which it brings something new to the flowers it alights on

The day wasn’t perfect for this kind of photography. It was cold for June, we had to dodge the showers and worst of all it was windy. It turns out that winged insects really don’t like wind!

Thought this was a mayfly but having looked on the web not so sure!

I love the delicate tracery of the irridescent wings on this little one.

ladybird mating.jpg — Stages of the ladybird’s life cycle:
Mating

Something else I knew nothing about till Saturday! I included the picture of the ladybirds mating even though it’s not very sharp as I thought it would be fun to show the whole cycle.

I love his little face. when you look at the faces of moths, butterflies and damselflies close up you can really see where people got the idea of fairies from.

Finally to sign off, a plant that tries to fool you into thinking it’s an animal - the Bee Orchid. When I was a child there were fields full of them and pyramid orchids where we lived on the Isle of Wight. Sadly nowadays they are much more difficult to find. Apologies if any of the info about insects in this blog is incorrect. If you spot any mistakes please feel free to highlight them in the comments. In the meantime happy insect hunting!

Last week we had some American cousins staying with us and on the days I wasn't working I offered to take them out and about. On Thursday we did Bath and on Friday 4th July it was the turn of Stonehenge and Salisbury.

Stonehenge is in the middle of Salisbury Plain and I love the big skies you find there

Although we had driven past it many times, I had only visited on one other occasion when our school trip stopped off at the stones on the way home to Dorset from London. It was quite magical, the sun was setting and we were able to wander around inside the stones to our hearts' content, it has become a cherished memory.

Later, driving past on frequent trips to visit my parents in Somerset, I saw a large wire perimeter fence had sprung up separating the visitors from the stones - I had no wish to stop as I felt it would only spoil the memory.

Last year, however, English Heritage changed the access to the stones and opened a new visitors' centre as befits a World Heritage Site. The transformation was radical! Gone was the fence, visitors are able to get really close to the stones in some places and, to my great surprise, it was fairly easy to take photographs without hordes of people in them.

It's hard to know if the stones are more impressive in colour or black and white

The stones and the visitors' centre explored, we set off for Salisbury where another stone edifice was the main attraction - the cathedral.

After exploring the main church we set off through the cloisters to the beautiful Chapter House where one of the two original versions of the Magna Carta signed at Runnymede in 1215 is displayed. Again I have only been to Runnymede once, under similar circumstance to my trip to Stonehenge, on the way back from a school trip. We stopped at the Airforce Memorial in the early evening and were infused with such a sense of beauty and peace. Since my visit there a memorial to JFK has been added.

The exhibitions showed links between the Declaration of Independence and Magna Carta and had quotes from various individuals in history who had paved the way to freedom, such as Martin Luther King. I think we all felt it very special to be viewing this historic document on American Independence Day.

“Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.”

— Abraham Lincoln