August 2026

12th. I was in St Ives for the solar eclipse, and watched it from Barnoon Cemetery in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. I used a Daystar wrap-around solar filter attached to the 100-500mm lens with masking tape, and was impressed with the results. Sunspots are vsible too.

I bought a Leica Q3 and love its simplicity and sophistication. Not great for wildlife, but I love the image quality, the fast lens gives great bokeh at f1.7 so will be great for landscapes. Some photos of the sunflower trail near Dorchester for Mona's birthday on 6th.

1st. Large scabious bees are still flying at St Uny's churchyard.

We found Peter Lanyon's gravestone there. The inscription reads

I will ride now
The barren kingdoms
In my history
And in my eye

Barnoon churchyard has abundant ragwort and valerian at the moment.

A Colletes bee, maybe daviesanus was also present.

I saw large white, clouded yellow, common blue, red admiral, painted lady and small tortoiseshell butterflies there. I've never seen as many hummingbird hawkmoths.