Butterflies

Nancy and Al only had a half-day in London before they had to make their way to Heathrow, so we stuck pretty close to home and puttered around Stoke Newington this morning. We started with a walk through Abney Park Cemetery and its abandoned church.

The cemetery was even more overgrown that the last time I was there, and we wandered from one entrance to the other, taking in plenty of greenery along the way.



From Abney Park, we headed over to Clissold Park, where I was excited to see that the Clissold Park Butterfly Tunnel was open today--every time Bob and I have walked past, it's been closed, so this was my first time in the tunnel. As we approached the greenhouse, two women exited. "Have you been in the butterfly tunnel?" one woman asked. When I told her about my previous bad luck at finding the tunnel open, she smiled a huge smile and said, "You should definitely go in--it's brilliant!" Extra curious after her glowing review, we entered the tunnel. At first, it seemed like any other greenhouse,
but as soon as we spotted one butterfly,
it quickly became apparent how many others there were in the tunnel with us!

These ones mostly kept to the yellow flowers, which kept them nicely camouflaged,
but one rebel bravely perched on a purple background.
The butterflies seemed to be attracted to white fabric, and Nancy was the only one of us who had white, on her shoes
and her shirt!
(We had to make sure that there weren't any stowaways on her when we exited.) We had a look at the Clissold Park bunnies

and deer

before leaving the animals
and heading for the park café:
We sat outside, enjoying our coffee and food, talking about what a nice spot Clissold Park was, before heading to a shop to get Al some UK music magazines. By the time we finished, it was time to head back home, pack up, and escort Al and Nancy to the tube station so they could begin their long journey home. Don't feel too sorry for them, though: this trip was their honeymoon, and as part of a generous wedding gift, their Vancouver-to-London legs of the trip were business class on British Airways--complete with departure lounges packed with freebies, champagne on the plane, seats that opened up into flat beds, and a general flying experience that sounds like none that I've ever had!