A Perfect Fine Day

A truly beautiful, fine day is a rarity in northern Scotland but today was one of them, with crystal-clear blue skies and an air temperature of eighteen when we first went in to the garden shortly after nine this morning, which had risen to....

....a stunning twenty-five by one in the afternoon - compare this to yesterday when the thermometer struggled to register sixteen at lunchtime on a dull, windy day.

In such brilliant sunshine one would have expected to have had insects out in their battalions but....

....in six hours in the garden I counted five butterflies, with this small white the only one which stopped long enough for a picture. The only other insects out were a few....

....bee and hover fly species most of which were particularly attracted to the sedum.

Perhaps just to warn us how fortunate we were to have such a lovely day, by midday the morning's blue sky boasted a textbook mare's tail - top picture. These are often signals of an approaching frontal system so it's unsurprising that tomorrow's forecast is for a dull but dry day, but even higher temperatures.