Tag: butterflies

Fleeting thought #6 {hand stitching & reflections}

On By ArtyMissKIn Fleeting thoughts, Photography7 Comments

Welcome back to another edition of my ramblings…how ya doing?! My intention really was to post this last week but I had Covid and I (not to sound dramatic) thought I was dying, literally I couldn’t get out of bed. Crazy really I managed not to catch Covid during the actual pandemic and then catch it randomly from a lady at church.

I thought I’d share a new Fleeting thought with you this week. A little different to normal this one is more of an insight into my love of embroidery.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while then you might have seen one or two of my embroidered butterfly posts. A lot of people ask me about my butterfly pins as I wear them (normally in my hair) and are often quite shocked when I tell them they are made by hand.

It kinda pushed me to the question. 

Why do I embroider things in my spare time?

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Raising Peacock Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies3 Comments

Hey friends! I’ve been a day behind all week and woke up convinced today was Friday only to discover that not only is it Saturday but also August 3rd (when did that happen!!)

So today I’m (belatedly) posting my first Butterfly tale of 2024!

As over the last couple of months I’ve been raising a little group of one of the prettiest common garden butterflies we get in the UK.

Peacock (Aglais io) are a beautiful red butterfly with giant eye spots (apparently these confuse predators) that seems to be around at all times of the year and is one of our bigger butterflies. The females lay their eggs on common ol’ stinging nettle in May and we have these lovelies to look at about two months later. Something I find amazing is that the females will lay all of their eggs at once which can be up to 500 eggs!!

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

On By ArtyMissKIn 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.

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Pearl-bordered Fritillary {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my friends! 

This week I’ve got a new butterfly one frame and I’m super excited to share it with you, I recently went on a flight survey day with Butterfly Conservation with the aim of recording how many Pearl-bordered fritillaries we could find!

In reality we were eight grown-ups wondering around a place called Pendirft bottom on Bodmin moor, either up to our knees in dead bracken or ankle deep in boggy mud…it was awesome!! The views were spectacular, there were deer in the distance, I even found a slow-worm!

All in all we spotted about 25 of these endangered little guys over the five hours we were there (which apparently made it a pretty good year!) and I was totally thrilled to get a few really good shots of one of the butterflies that was a) in focus b) a decent composition and c) in focus. It was fairly close to the end of the day and I think he (or she) must’ve thought this weirdo with the camera has been following us all day, best give her a break and sit still. 

I love how it has blue/grey eyes in contrast to the rest of its being.

A pearl-bordered fritillary was a first for me and the patterns on its underwing were beautiful!! I really like how bright it seems in relation to the dead, dry bracken, plus the light was perfect.

I really hope you like this photo and that my butterfly filled posts spread a little bit of happiness. I’m definitely feeling like making an embroidered one of these! As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful nature filled week!

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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Raising Large White Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies4 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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Butterflies of Cornwall {book review}

On 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…

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Raising Painted lady Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies6 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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Insects and minibeasts in the wild! {Insect week 2023}

On By ArtyMissKIn 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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