Inside Berkeley castle's wonderful butterfly house

I managed to take the whole day off today to enjoy not only the sun but a day out at Berkeley Castle. I wanted to go back to the butterfly house which is in the grounds of the castle because I knew that it would close soon at the end of the summer season. But I only realised this morning that today was the last day.

So I packed a light picnic with a thermos of hot water and headed off across country and down into the Severn Vale close to the Bristol Channel near Sharpness docks.  The castle is privately owned and I did visit about a decade ago.  Nowadays I prefer the attraction of the butterflies and I wasn't disappointed.  They are kept in a hot house next to the castle's formal gardens and being in there is quite a test especially when you rush around with a camera and a variety of lenses chasing certain rather shy species as they flit between the tropical plants.

I took far too many images, and have made a short list of about fifteen which I showed to Woodpeckers.  She chose this rather pretty and well camouflaged one which I also really like so I'll blip it.  I hope to get my wits together soon and re-establish my Flickr gallery linked to my Lightroom rather than my old Aperture software on my other computer.  There is a conflict between 'signing on' from the different machines, which I have been trying to sort out for months.  I think I will have to start a new account and import some of my old Flickr galleries.  It does at least provide the opportunity for some judicious weeding out.


I have added the last of my 'Extra Photo' allocation with another butterfly, just before it took off.