Wet and windy few hours on Holy Island - 9th May 2026

It was raining when I got the bus from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Holy Island where I spent a few hours.  Unfortunately, it was damp and very windy all day - but I still managed to see some interesting things before getting the bus back to Berwick at around 4.00 pm.

Lindisfarne Castle on top of a small steep hill

Two Ringed Plovers on the beach

The markers on the land opposite Holy Island

Oystercatchers on the wet beach

Pretty pink Clematis in Gertrude Jekyll's garden

A thistle-like flower in the garden

Sheep sheltering from the strong wind

Fluffed-up male Reed Bunting on the edge of a tree

Female Roe deer

and with a male

Sheep with black heads

Blackbird parking warden!

Swallows landing on the narrow road while feeding

and joined by a Pied Wagtail

Huge Gorilla outside the takeaway - a very strange animal to find on Holy Island!

 

Flowers in the Evolution Garden and Waterlily house, plus butterflies and a fox in Kew Gardens - mid July 2025

Gorgeous Day Lily in the Evolution Gardens - it was the first time I had visited this part of Kew Gardens and it was amazing on a sunny July day

Very tall yellow daisy-like flowers

Bee-spotting lesson!

White Poppy

Plums in the kitchen garden

 

and Grapes

Large ladybird on top of one of the posts in the kitchen garden

Large bee in a pink Rose in the Evolution Garden

Shrub with fancy rose-coloured flowers

Very tall Sunflower

Absolutely beautiful multi-coloured pink roses on the end of a stem

Huge clump of purple Agapanthus with white Crinium Lilies in the background

Large Artichoke or Cardoon

Orange trumpet-shaped flowers - Campsis Radicans

White Crinium Lilies with the Agapanthus in the background

Large group of orange flowers - with one tiny red flower joining them!

Silver Sea Holly

View from the Evolution Garden with a temple in the background

Lovely large purple Clematis flower

Spiky yellow petals with a bee in the centre

Purple Waterlily in the Waterlily House

Pretty pink Waterlily

Two mauve Waterlilies with a reflection of the roof in the water 

Lovely tall white Waterlily

Huge Waterlily pads

Red-eyed Damselfly on a plant near the bridge over the lake 

Female Tufted duck with duckling standing by shrubs at the edge of the lake

Hybrid goose - maybe Domestic/Greylag mix???

Common Blue damselfly on an iris leaf at the edge of the lake

Meadow Brown butterfly on mauve thistle-like flower

Holly Blue butterfly on Purple Loosestrife

Pair of mating Common Blue damselflies

Crafty fox

View of Syon House on the other side of the Thames

Gatekeeper butterfly on Ragwort in the woodland garden