Attracting Admirals

Our Buddleia or Butterfly Bush has been attracting lots of attention from the intended audience. Admirers have swarmed around, including the seemingly four-eyed Red Admiral. Of course, trying to get an excellent photo of any butterfly is a challenge. When there's a stiff breeze blowing the heavy Buddleia spears about, it's even more difficult. There also are a lot of little white butterflies flitting about, but they are everywhere. These bobbing and weaving little flyers particularly like the blood-red Nasturtiums.

Speaking of the Nasturtiums, I wish I had taken a photo of our salad last night. Gordon and Helen came to dinner. I made rissotto with gorgonzola (and 3 other) cheese spiked with a handful of chopped pistachio nuts served with steamed asparagus tips, crusty bread, and a dressed green salad decorated with a Nasturtium blossom on each plate. (I guess that would be a "well-dressed salad.") The Nasturtiums added a delightful peppery taste to the salad. Helen said when she was a girl growing up in Edinburgh, she and her playmates used to eat the Nasturtium leaves, calling them Nippity Biscuits. We finished with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries followed by coffee. The company was delightful as usual. Helen and Gordon are just back from a 2-day jaunt to celebrate their 46th anniversary. They went to St Andrews and explored the East Neuk of Fife. They came back raving about the annual Pittenweem art festival where all the local artists open their studios and sold their wares. We must put this annual event on the calendar for next year. The Raes say they are going back.

Chris from Acorn Fabrics in Perth came yesterday to measure our sitting/dining area windows for curtains and to collect their samples we've had for weeks now. He says someone will phone us in a couple of days with an estimate.

This afternoon the book group is meeting here to discuss Ian McEwan's Atonement. I am not quite finished but having read it once already, I think I can hold my own in the discussion. I get to select the next book or at least put forth the strongest suggestion. Unless there are serious objections, the next book will be Marina Lewycka's A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian said to be very funny. Fortunately, it's in English!

Don and Gordon are out playing golf on this cool and overcast day. The temperature is in the low 60s and, like yesterday, the sun sometimes breaks through but it's mostly overcast and the gusts of wind are fairly cool. Wind can dry potted plants even more than the sun can (or Monty Don, one of the BBC gardening experts, says), so I spent considerable time this morning watering. I never did get out there the other day with my electric trimmers, but I am thinking about it. That ought to count for something.