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Today is the feast of St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. In medieval art, she is often depicted teaching her little daughter to read. Medieval stained glass from Marsh Baldon, Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, All Souls, Oxford, and Kidlington, Oxfordshire.

Gustav Klimt would have *loved* this gold band glass alabastron. It was achieved by sandwiching gold leaf between layers of colorless glass, creating a luxury perfume flask for the wealthy Roman patrician class. 1/ #GettyVilla 📸 me

US artist Frederick Judd Waugh was primarily a marine artist ~ even designing war-time ship camouflage ~ but he shows his versatility in this still life with bottles, aka Rum Row (1922)

Stunning peacock nectaring on alkanet in my garden🦚🦋🦚 The peacock's Latin name - Inachis Io - has a beautiful link with the English one. This🦋 is named after Io, daughter of Inachus - & Juno set the eyes of Io's guard, Argus, into the tail of her peacocks 🦋🦚🦋

Blue-on-blue for #BlueMonday 💙🪻💙 The stunning blue flowers of chicory are, botanically speaking, an inflorescence. The lovely straight-yet- serrated ends of each 'petal' are, in fact, the remnants of five fused petals💙 Each seeming petal is its own flower🪻

A kaleidoscope of butterflies 🦋

I like to imagine there was a Nazca child who would refuse to eat their mashed cassava unless it was served in the mice bowl

Ivy-leaved toadflax growing on an #Oxford wall💜 Its 17th century name was ‘Oxford ivy' or 'Oxford weed’ because it was thought to have arrived from Italy via the packaging of a marble statue destined for an Oxford college garden💜🐸💜🐸

'The grass... smelt of thyme and self-heal' (Watership Down) The royal purple of self-heal, nestling deep in meadow grasses. It is also known as heart-of-the-earth💜

Sneezewort, also known as 'fair-maid-of-France'🤍 It looks like a large flowered yarrow & its scientific name is close - Achillea ptarmica (yarrow is Achillea millefolium) 🤍 'Ptarmica' comes from the Greek 'ptairo' (sneeze)🤍 #FlowersOnFridays

A great account & really worth a follow if you don't already. Similar to mine but eloquent, knowledgeable and minus the rage 🌿 Brilliant photography and tonnes of plant lore and knowledge 📖 🪄 #FollowFriday

The heart-skippingly lovely brown argus🤎🦋🧡 It is named after Argus - the hundred-eyed guardian of Greek mythology - because of its 'many-eyed' underwing 🦋 This diminutive 🦋is one of my favourites!

And people say X is bad . This has made my day! Thankyou 🌳💪🏻

Bottled sunshine💛🪷💛 This wild native yellow water-lily is also known as 'brandy bottle' due to the distinctive shape of its fruit #sundayyellow

Look up Nuphar lutea in Wikipedia. Grows wild across a vast area from Libya to Siberia, can be used as food, and removes methane from lake sediment. An astounding plant.

A beautiful blue🦋 for #blueMonday These are my favourite butterflies and it still feels a little bit magic every time I see and📸one!

Lilac-flowered water mint, flowering in profusion on the banks of the river Cherwell near #Oxford💜 The crushed leaves have a vibrant, minty scent with an unmistakable nostalgia hit of Murray Mints🌿💜🌿

How wonderful?

Peaceful summer beauty - a meadow brown on a thistle 💜🦋💜

Absolutely love this! 🐦🐦‍⬛🪶