more colours of Spring

Our drive to fully immerse ourselves in the Cornish Spring continues apace.   We visited the Pine Lodge gardens and Pinetum in St Austell one Saturday morning, and despite rather grey skies it was a delight to visit this private garden.  They have over 6,000 plant variaties and it actually felt like a large family estate that celebrated nature rather than sought to just exploit it.

I smiled the whole way around:

We found this specimen in the plant sale and had to have it, the depth of the colour is something else:

We were also invited by Cornwall Butterfly Conservation to join a visit to a number of sites looking for emergent Pearl Bordered Fritillaries.  We visited three sites finding insects at everyone, the last site was where we'd worked in December and it was wonderful to see the declining and scarce species benefit from our work and the work of the experts and all the other volunteers:

We also took ourselves on a walk around Loe Bar, where we'd first seen Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries last year, one day later on the calendar, and even though the Spring has been and remains a cold one, we were successful:

As the weather delayed the full burst of Spring we waited until late into the local bluebell festivals to visit one of the premier sites in the county for them, Enys Gardens:

It's a magnificent site even though the rest of the house and gardens are in some disrepair and seem on the whole to be confused.

Another day another trip out, this time on to the MOD land at Penhale Sands, guided by the warden in search of more butterfly species.  The land is used for escape, evasion and survival training:

We saw Brown Argus:

Dingy Skipper:

Blankets of ground ivy:

A green leaf beetle:

Marsh Marigold:

Nearly up to date now and a wet and windswept walk towards Pendeen saw us hike the last few miles home in wind and fog, we did get to see this dolmen like structure on the moors:

And finally our most recent day out was a 10 mile circular walk from Predannack to the Lizard Point, and back again.   The sun was shining, a light but stiffening breeze made for a beautiful day's walking:

We were also pleased to discover a second breeding location for the Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary:

Let's hope for a warmer last month of Spring, there's plenty more to see and enjoy!