I can’t wait to…

…SEE WILD FOXGLOVES

My favourite name for foxgloves is

Deadmen’s thimbles. As a child, their bell-shaped flowers looked like perfect sheathes for my fingertips (their Latin name, Digitalis purpurea, is thought to derive from these finger-shaped corollas). But I was sternly warned never to poke my fingers inside. To do so would result in a very bad tummy ache. Famously toxic, foxgloves contain cardiac glycosides, which in controlled doses can treat irregular heartbeats. It’s always a joy to see these beguiling, carnivalesque spears growing wild on heaths and woodland edges, June to September. Philip Thomas, Features Writer

…DRINK A BLUEBIRD

If you’re like me, you won’t want your quest for the perfect post-walk pint to finish anytime soon. But honestly, I found the answer

15 years ago, in the Black

Bull at the foot of the Old

Man of Coniston in the south Lakes. Coniston

Bluebird is brewed on site from refreshing lakeland water, biscuity maris otter and crystal malts and crisp, moreish challenger hops. At

3.6% it’s calculated to quench more than intoxicate, and a pint or two makes the perfect developing fluid for your latest Lakeland memories. CAMRA’s Supreme Champion Beer of Britain in 1998; a lifetime award from me. Guy Procter, Editor

…SEE PAINTED LADIES

Its markings are striking – flameorange blackening to charcoal at the wing-tips – but the most extraordinary thing about this butterfly is the journey it makes to get here.

Vanessa cardui migrates from Africa on a round trip that can hit 9000 miles, to seek its favourite thistle food everywhere from urban gardens to mountains. Numbers typically peak in August, and vary wildly from year to year, and the epic flight north isn’t covered by a single butterfly in one go, but by six successive generations who emerge from a pupa and somehow, despite weighing less than a gram, make their way across land and sea. Jenny Walters, Features Editor