Stockton (Preparing for Oslo)

We’ve decided not to move the boat any more this week as we are in a good spot and happy to leave the boat here whilst we pop over to Oslo for the weekend to see Matthew (Karen’s eldest).

One of my favourite butterflies is the Brown Hairstreak and as there is a site near here we went for a walk after lunch.  Unfortunately we didn’t find any as it became rather chilly and started spitting with rain – quite the opposite to our morning walk which had been sunny and warm when we had a look at what was the Blue Lias railway line but is now a national cycle track. 

It was pleasing to see that they are trying to conserve the Small Blue butterfly here.

Buddy insisted on drinking the canal water as usual but couldn’t find many places as the water is quite a lot lower than the towpath in this area.
 

The position of this seat tickled us.

Here is the area where we hoped to see Brown Hairstreaks.  They lay their eggs on blackthorn bushes (the bushes that sloes come from).  The eggs over-winter and the caterpillars hatch out in late spring and eat the blackthorn leaves before turning into chrysalises.  The adults emerge in mid to late August and can be found flying into the end of September.

As I said at the start of this entry, we are off to Oslo (by plane!) for a few days so boat blogging will stop on Friday and recommence next Tuesday or Wednesday.