Whilst admiring and smelling the first of our sweet peas, the first to emerge was this beautiful Painted Lady, I got a bit of a shock when I came face to face with something rather alien on one of the flowers. A spider…..…

  The small tortoiseshell butterfly used to be one of the most common British butterflies but sadly it’s been in steep decline in recent years. Therefore it was very cheering to see a number of them fluttering around the allotment this week and they seem…