Off to GB Gruffy for to meet up with Steve and the girls for an impromptu picnic amidst the wildflowers. We got there early so Graham could run off a couple of rolls of film through the 6x9 fitted with a properly-shuttered zone plate whilst Ngaio used the digital.

We'd finished by the time Steve and the girls arrived, so we all had a tour round, counting the number of different wildflower species we could spot. The total came to 26. Bluebells and stitchwort were the most numerous but there were delightful swathes of cowslips, clumps of speedwell on top of ant nest hillocks and the occasional drift of violets, all under a beautiful blue open sky. Magic.

Overcast to start with, by mid-afternoon the weather had cleared and it was a nice sunny afternoon, so off to Shute Shelve to catch up with the season. The slopes are studded with blue speedwell and yellow rock rose, very attractive. We've hung up a bird seed feeder near the kitchen window and are starting to get some good images, this is a young greenfinch.<

There was a good breeze coming in from the west and it was keeping the blues close to the ground. I managed to get some detailed shots despite the wind. We don't yet know what species the caterpillars are.

We found some Heath Speedwell, a species we hadn't yet photographed and this is Ngaio's farewell portrait of Terry the Tadpole, the sole survivor of this year's frogspawn in the garden pond.