Little things that run the world! {Insect week 2024}

On June 28, 2024October 25, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography6 Comments

Hey friends! How are ya?

This week has been insect week one of my favourite weeks in the whole year! Insect week – which is run by the Royal entomology society is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about bugs and creepy crawlies! This year I thought I’d share seven photos of seven different types of bugs I’ve recently seen.

I don’t claim to have anywhere near the skillset of a professional photographer and am generally really pleased if my subject hasn’t flown/crawled away before I’ve had a chance to take a few photographs! Some of these are better than others but the thing about photography (in my opinion) is that it doesn’t always need to be perfect, just having fun is key!

Kicking off Insect week 2024 are these cute little green leaf bugs, something I find amazing with bug photography is that they always look so much bigger than in real life, these little guys are actually on the head of an ox eye daisy.

Continue reading →

Raising Large White Butterflies

On July 28, 2023May 3, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography4 Comments

Hey friends,

How are ya!?

I’ve got a new butterfly tale for you! This post has been a while in the making and actually began in May…when I planted cabbages in my Wildspace so that the cabbage butterflies had a place to lay their eggs – I really dislike that vegetable growers sometimes treat them as pests and decided that the little patch of nature I’ve been blessed with would welcome these butterflies.

Anyway, on the 2nd of June I sat and watched a Large white (Pieris brassicas) flutter around the garden and she took a fancy to one of the cabbage leaves…they’re actually really picky about what leaves they lay eggs on and watching her, was like she was trying all the leaves for size.

Continue reading →

Butterflies of Cornwall {book review}

On July 21, 2023May 3, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation2 Comments

Hello friends!

Have ya had a good week? Since its week two of the Big Butterfly Count I thought I’d try something a little different from usual and write a book review!!

Incase it hasn’t already been established I’m a little bit crazy for butterflies and since I’m trying to entice as many of them into my newly designed/planted Wildspace, I thought that I’d try to find a book to give me an idea of which butterflies are most likely to visit the area (and grow the plants accordingly).

Butterflies of Cornwall, atlas for the twenty-first century was published by Cornwall Butterfly Conservation in 2021.

If you’ve not heard of them Butterfly Conservation is kinda like WWF or the RSPB, you join for about £3.00 per month and are sent an amazing welcome pack including postcards, and a lovely little book on gardening for moths and butterflies as well as a handy caterpillar guide and then you receive the Butterfly magazine three times a year (I get ever so excited when I know its on its way!) It’s a really lovely group to be involved with. They organise field trips and everything which is awesome.

Plus I love a book!

So here’s my review…

Continue reading →

Raising Painted lady Butterflies

On July 14, 2023May 3, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography6 Comments

Creepy crawly caterpillars, creep crawl creep. Creepy crawly caterpillars hear them creep. Crawly crawly creep. Creepy creepy crawl. I’ve got caterpillars to share with you all!!

Hello friends!

Firstly, d’ya like my song?

Secondly, ever bought a plant at a garden centre and ended up bringing aphids/bugs home?

Seeing as today kicks off Butterfly Conservations Butterfly Count I thought I’d share a look at the new peeps I’ve been caring for! (Warning its kinda a long post!)

Well, as intoned in the above verse I’ve had caterpillars!!! I’ve actually set up and built my own butterfly house so that I can raise and release butterflies I find in the garden. Although I didn’t actually find these chaps in the garden (I found them in the kitchen), I decided I wanted to add a couple more thistles to my growing collection of plants because I love them, especially the pink ones! (there’s something punky about them) and while I was trying to find a moment to plant them I realised something was eating them…well it turned out to be caterpillars – Painted ladies to be precise! One of my favourites!!

Setting up and creating my own butterfly house to give them their best chance in life has been awesome – we have a lot of bird life here and apparently a blue tit chick can eat 100 caterpillars each day, butterflies are already quickly declining – if by doing my bit for conservation and getting nine out of ten pupae to emerge can help bolster the species numbers then I’ll do it. Plus, everyone needs a hobby and watching them complete their life cycle brings me such an extreme amount of joy I can’t really put it into words.

Continue reading →

Insects and minibeasts in the wild! {Insect week 2023}

On June 23, 2023June 28, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography7 Comments

Hey friends! How are ya?

This week is insect week – which is run by the Royal entomology society to try and get us to engage with the importance of insects/pollinators.

Something I love about photographing bugs or animals is that you have until they lose interest or fly away to try and capture an amazing image so this week I thought I’d share seven of the best (in my opinion) bug photos I’ve taken over the last month or two.

This year I accidentally bought a dyer’s camomile instead of the regular type you make tea with and the flowers are massive, this iridescent green swollen-thighed beetle (Oedemera nobilis) rested on it for a few minutes and then flew away.

Isn’t it a magnificent colour?

Continue reading →

Raising Small tortoiseshell Butterflies

On June 9, 2023July 10, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography5 Comments

Happy second Friday in June my friends,

Here’s a little butterfly centred post fluttering its way to you. You might remember that a couple of months ago I posted about rescuing some orange tip butterfly pupae?

Well recently I’ve been caring for 9 Small tortoiseshell caterpillars, which pupated about ten days ago! It was so exciting. I’ve raised these butterflies before, my newly improved butterfly house involves serval pop-up mesh enclosures and many different types of butterfly friendly plants to simulate the outside world – in an attempt to give them a better start in life.

Butterflies in the UK are declining so quickly that I want to be able to save as many of them as I can to help boost the local populations.

I love it when they ‘colour up’ and you can see the suggestion of wing patterns through the shell.

Continue reading →

Fleeting thought #3 {new growth, adventures & creating my Wildspace}

On June 2, 2023April 26, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Fleeting thoughts, Photography

Welcome back to another edition of my random ramblings…how are ya?!

One of my favourite quotes in life is from The Secret Garden which reads;

If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden.
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Incase I haven’t mentioned it before, I love being outside in nature and gardening is so soothing for the soul.

Anyway, this is the third Fleeting Thought, it’s been like three months since the last one (where have those months gone!!) and I’ve written a haiku about new leaves- you’ve been warned!

So here goes…

I’ve finally taken the plunge into organised gardening (it’s been one of my life goals since forever!) it seems to create much more work than my regular type of gardening which has always generally consisted of one of two simple methods (1) open seed packets and scatter at will or (b) buy plant, dig hole for plant, plant plant.

Continue reading →

Raising Orange Tip Butterflies

On April 14, 2023July 10, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

Nature is magical isn’t it?!

This weeks post is a butterfly centred photography collection.

I recently had to have a bit of a clear out in my new garden, for many reasons but mainly that (1) it was full of some seriously dead plants and (B) there was a little section of fencing that connected to the dry stone wall (I mean its literally one of my life goals to have a garden with a dry stone wall) that meant my dog could get out. I felt so bad for having to take away some of the dead plants but needed to make it safe for my pooch.

While I was having this clear out I found four Orange tip butterfly pupae! Being a towny I’ve never really seen these before and the pupae themselves were tiny, but being the bug freak that I am I brought them inside and created an environment for them to finish their transformation and wanted to share the photos with you.

Continue reading →