Category: Photography

A day among the flowers

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography5 Comments

Hey friends!

We’re beginning to get increasingly closer to all the beautiful flowers being in bloom and I thought I’d share some recent clicks of pretty flowers I’ve taken. Some from my garden and some from the wild and I wanted to take you guys along with me so you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and pretty plants too! 

It wasn’t until I sat to look over my photos that I realised I’d been focusing on pink flowers! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your day as much as they did mine.

Its funny I hadn’t realised just how many plants are pink!

Starting off my wildflower quest is a little light pink Scabious, I love these and am actually growing about a dozen of these plants in my Wildspace, as long as you cut the faded heads off they flower all summer long and the butterflies love them.

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Speckled Wood butterfly {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends! 

I’ve got a little one frame to share with you this week, lets be honest it wasn’t going to be long before butterflies took over the theme of my posts again was it! I was actually planning to post some new bug illustrations I’ve been working on but this little guy (or girl) fluttered into the garden a couple of days ago.

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Fleeting thought #4 {treasured possessions and Kintsugi}

On By ArtyMissKIn Fleeting thoughts, Photography2 Comments

Hello friends, I hope you had a good week!

Today I wanted to share the fourth Fleeting Thought with you.

The first three Fleeting Thoughts have been fairly nature based, the first being the unchanging/immortal existence of stones with holes in known as Hagstones and the second being the momentary lives of sandcastles, but this time I wanted to try something a bit different.

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Raising Large White Butterflies

On 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.

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Raising Painted lady Butterflies

On 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.

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A golden summer afternoon & 200 subscribers!!!

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography3 Comments

Good afternoon friends!

Who-hoo! We’re at 200 followers, everyone!!!

I’m kinda a little bit giddy?!

*cue the hand cut eco confetti made from pressed flowers*

Okay, actually, its 202 to be exact! Anyway, a supersized THANK YOU to everyone who’s subscribed and liked my posts! I wouldn’t be where I’m at without you and I truly appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine!

So on to this weeks post, since the weather has been so gloriously filled with sunshine I thought I’d go on a little wander through a golden summer afternoon to try and find some brightly coloured wildflowers, and I wanted to take you guys along with me so you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and pretty plants too! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your day as much as they did mine.

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

On 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?

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Raising Small tortoiseshell Butterflies

On 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.

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