Raising Emperor moths (2026 edition)

On May 15, 2026May 8, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography6 Comments

Hey friends! Welcome to my third Butterfly tale of 2026!!

Do you remember last year I wrote about my experience over wintering 3 Emperor moth cocoons I found in the garden? They emerged mated like crazy and flew away, well this year I’m continuing that story…

So my three Emperors from last year were a richly coloured male and two gigantic grey winged females, I really fell in love with them and was thrilled that they survived the winter (I found them on a plant that was damaged during a winter storm) I created them an enclosure with different heathers and a giant meadow sweet plant and they were obviously quite happy as the girls laid like 250-300 eggs!

Sadly Emperor moth eggs need really specific humidity and temperatures to develop and although I was hopeful only a single egg hatched. I was gutted to be honest I kinda thought I was going to be releasing an army of them.

Just to point out my butterfly raising disclaimer, I’m only rescuing the ones I can identify as eggs as some caterpillars can be tricky to raise or are protected species. If I don’t trust that I can look after them properly and give them the right food plant/proper environment then my plan is always to just leave them alone.

So my very precious caterpillar began to eat her way around the enclosure. These moths have fascinating caterpillar, each time the caterpillar grows or ‘moults’ a stage in life where they rest for a few days and shed their skin causes significant changes in their appearance.

These are the first three stages, getting progressively bigger from left to right. I think stage 2 is very pretty!

The final caterpillar stage is magnificent! She was about three inches long and bright green – my very own hungry caterpillar ate two small heather plants and near enough a third of the meadowsweet plant. We had one or two close calls were I was concerned she might die, but she just kept eating, so I named her Hardy.

I’m well aware you shouldn’t get attached to them, but its really hard not to.

After a few months of almost continuous eating Hardy finally decided to pupate amongst the fallen heather flowers at the bottom of the enclosure and I left her there sleeping for the rest of the year. I didn’t photograph her cocoon but this is what they look like!

Her egg was laid on the 3rd of April 2025 and she finally emerged as a fully grown moth of the 8th of April 2026. I literally spent an entire year caring for a single moth. Obviously I didn’t know she was going to be a girl, isn’t she fluffy! (If you click on either of the photos above it will take you to my insta to see her taking off!)

She was really pink, which wasn’t expecting! I thought I’d add photos of ‘mum and dad’ to show the variations in colour between the two generations.

The Emperor moth (Saturnia Pavonia) is the UK’s only silk moth and builds an amazing hairy cocoon to pupate inside. The females can have a wingspan of up to around 10cm, while the males are slightly smaller at 6-ish cm. Sadly this family of moths don’t feed in their adult form and only live a few short weeks.

Interestingly the females release pheromones that can attract a males from up to seven miles away!!

I was also able to get a photo of her underwing which isn’t an angle I’ve seen before.

If I’m being honest while release days are always my favourite, I was actually really sad to see her fly away – I genuinely thought she’d be too fat to fly but she took off like a jet and flew over the meadow, hopefully she found mate and laid a ton of eggs!

Anyway I really hope you enjoyed this little slice of mothy goodness!

As always thank you so much for reading this post and have a great week!

Raising Orange Tip Butterflies (2026 edition)

On April 19, 2026April 19, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography8 Comments

Hey friends!

I’ve got another brand new Butterfly Tale for you this week which is exciting and has been a whole year in the making. When I planted my Honesty seeds last summer I did so in the hope that Orange tips would come and lay eggs in the garden – in 2024 I only found a single egg and cared for her as much as possible, so I was thrilled to find not one but eleven eggs in the spring of 2025!

They were spread across several plants, Orange tips do this because the caterpillars are cannibalistic when small although I’ve never worked out if that means they eat all caterpillars or just their brethren). I sleeved each egg in a mesh bag to keep them safe from predators and checked on them after about three weeks.

Eight of the eggs had hatched into tiny green caterpillars!

Orange tip butterflies really like to lay their eggs on Lady’s smock which seemed to flower later than normal but thankfully my Honesty plants were massive and I’d grown plenty of them!

Popular belief says they don’t do well on Honesty but they all survived!

They seemed to be small for ages, but once they were almost fully grown I popped them all into a house together to form their pupa as we had bad weather coming and I didn’t want them to die after working so hard to grow this big.

Just to point out my usual butterfly raising disclaimer, I’m only rescuing the ones I can identify as eggs as some caterpillars can be tricky to raise or are protected species. If I don’t trust that I can look after them properly and give them the right food plant/proper environment then my plan is always to just leave them alone.

In the end they all pupated in the same corner of the house (about three days later) and I was able to carefully move them to a small travel case were they have remained before successfully emerging as beautiful butterflies.

I have literally been caring for these creatures for a year! When I moved into my house back in 2022 I found three Orange tip pupa when I was clearing the garden (boy did it need work!) which emerged in 2023. That year I found only two caterpillars which didn’t ever emerge, then in 2024 there was only one Orange tip and for 2025 I found these ones.

Orange tip butterflies (Anthocharis cardamines) and are considered a medium sized butterfly with a wing span of up to 5cm. The males have a large orange spot on the forewing while the females look like a Small white.

The big release day came and went and off they flew out into the big wild world.

The weather has a lot to do with the success of these butterflies 2024 in particular was a really wet spring and the pollinators suffered as a result.

I planted more Honesty seeds than normal last summer and already have enough plants for these guys to for forth and hopefully get busy, also the front garden is full of these delicate pink lady’s smock flowers which is their favourite egg host plant! I can’t raise these ones indoors but I can certainly give them extra amounts of plants in the garden.

Thanks so much for reading this post and I as always wish you a happy and love filled week ahead.

Raising Speckled Wood Butterflies

On April 11, 2026April 6, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography5 Comments

Hey friends! I’ve got a new Butterfly Tale for you this week!!

This is very much a surprise butterfly tale, last year I decided to weed the grass out of my birds foot trefoil pots and I found three little cream coloured eggs!

I felt really bad about disturbing them and popped the little stems of grass into an enclosure in my butterfly house with (don’t judge me) a new pot of fine stem grass…thats right I actually potted up grass (my brother thought I’d lost my mind).

After really studying the eggs I guessed they were either going to be Speckled wood/Meadow brown/Gate keeper or a type of grass eating moth – I figured that if they were actually going to eat birds foot trefoil then the eggs wouldn’t have been laid on the grass.

They were really very happy with their pot of grass and before I knew had grown into rather handsome green caterpillars.

I was trilled when they turned out to be Speckled wood! I’ve never had a chance to raise this type of butterfly before so having three of them was awesome.

So, Speckled wood grows into a brown medium sized butterfly with a wingspan of 47mm-50mm and they like to visit woodlands, gardens and anywhere with sunny spots.

They formed their short curvy pupa in the autumn and I’ve been checking on them all winter, I literally can’t express how happy it made me to care for these three caterpillars, I genuinely never ever thought something like Speckled wood would ever lay their eggs in my garden.

The lovely green pupa turned black and within 48 hours I had three perfect butterflies! Now I only kept these ones for a few hours as they prefer to feed on honeydew (which is the bottom secretions of aphids!) rather than nectar and as I try not to raise aphids I released the three amigos once their wings had dried out.

But aren’t they such a lovely brown colour.

Although releasing the butterflies I’ve raised is genuinely the best part of caring for these creatures it always makes me a little sad as I become so emotionally invested in them.

Silly really.

Speckled Wood is a clever butterfly as they can survive the winter in either the caterpillar or pupa part of their life cycle and then hibernate over winter before emerging in some time in April as beautiful butterflies.

So thats it for this week, I really hope you enjoyed this little slice of fluttery goodness! I feel so incredibly privileged to be able to care for these creatures for like seven months or so.

As always thank you so much for reading this post and have a great week!

Floral folklore #3

On March 7, 2026March 21, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

As you know I love discovering the quirky myths, folklore and random stories about the plants I’m growing in my garden (I’m a total plant-nerd) and those that I find on my walking adventures. So seeing as it’s been a while since I posted one of these I thought I’d look at three of my favourite plants to see if there’s any fun stories relating to them!!

I love a thistle (Cirsium vulgare) they are plants in the Asteraceae family (which believe it or not is the daisy family) and are noted for having prickly leaves and purple, pink, or white flower heads. I grow many, many thistles in the garden and even a random one thats (for some unknown reason) growing in amongst the grass that I don’t have the heart to mow over.

Continue reading →

Meadow Brown vs Gatekeeper!

On February 28, 2026March 21, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography

Hey friends!

This week I’ve got a two new butterfly photographs to share with you, you’ve probably seen them in your gardens or local parks, small, unassuming little brown and orange butterflies flitting from flower to flower.

These are two of our most abundant butterflies and usually one or the other win the top spot in Save Butterflies summer citizen science experiment the Big Butterfly Count.

These two types of butterfly look more or less identical…

Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) is often the most abundant butterfly in many habitats, from gardens to quarries and is even spotted fluttering about even on overcast days, which is unusual as most butterflies are inactive in dull weather. They are a member of the ‘brown’ family and have a wingspan of up to 55mm.

The Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) also known as the Hedge Brown is most likely to be spotted where clumps of flowers grow near gates or along hedges. Gatekeepers are often seen out and about with Ringlets and Meadow Browns and sometimes its quite hard to tell them apart. They are slightly smaller than Meadow Brown with a wingspan of up to 47mm (so theres not a lot in it size wise).

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Wandering among the Spring Wildflowers

On February 15, 2026March 21, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

Who doesn’t love a flower in the spring?

Firstly I meant to post this yesterday but forgot to click schedule and it sat in my drafts, which is a bummer because its kinda broken my posting streak…oh well!

I’m not really a massive fan of Valentines day and while I thought about writing something cutesy I’m personally of the opinion that you should show love to the people you care for everyday not just the one day that our calendar dictates.

*Not that it matters now being a day late!

Still, we’ve miraculously had a few days of sunshine which I’ve taken full advantage of and tried to spend as much time outside as I can. There are so many pretty spring flowers in bloom at the moment that I thought I’d go for a wander with my camera and wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty countryside too! I hope these little glimpses of spring colour bring as much joy to your week as much as they did mine.

Ready?

Let’s go!

To start my spring wanderings I was met with so many Snowdrops, these jolly little flowers are truly a sign that winter is ending and the sun is coming out more, they are also known as the ‘fair maid of February’. There are a multitude of different varieties of Snowdrop including these ones that have a grumpy face (which I’ve never noticed before!).

Also as a side note while we look upon these little flowers and think they’re cute have you ever noticed that some Snowdrops have little green hearts on the insides of their inner petals!

There’s an old English superstition says that if you bring a snowdrop into your home your eggs and milk will spoil…I’ve pressed snowdrops and can confirm this didn’t happen -although I drink oat milk, which isn’t really milk.

Completely off topic and unrelated to spring time flora but my neighbours have sheep! They’ve been moved into the fields my garden backs onto and I’m totally in love. Aren’t they beautiful!!

Anyway, on we go…

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Robin {One frame}

On January 31, 2026January 29, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hey friends!

Can you believe it will be February tomorrow?!

I’ve got a little one frame to share with you this week, now I don’t often don’t often snap photos of bird (I really struggle getting them to appear sharp instead of overly soft) but while I was wandering recently, between the storms we’ve had over the last couple of weeks this rather friendly little robin came and stood beside me on the low branches of a tree.

He or she is a obviously a Robin (Erithacus rubecula) which is, according to the RSPB the UK’s favourite bird. Males and females look pretty much identical and like to sing nearly all year round and despite their cute appearance, they are aggressively territorial and will fight off intruders to protect their patch of garden.

It really was very beautiful moment!!

And once I got home and was able to have a proper look at my snaps, I was pleasantly surprised at how clear the photos were, you can see the definition of his little feathers and everything!

In other news the first disasters of 2026 have happened, they say things always come in threes! Firstly my washing machine tried to take flight and promptly smelt like burning rubber (not nice!), secondly my air source heat system died and has got to be completely replaced including all the pipes and stuff and the radiators are being moved which is gonna mess up my wallpaper (yay!) and thirdly my butterfly house/shed kinda flooded this week – I was super upset I’ve never owned a shed and had worked really hard to make it pretty, the worst part is I literally can’t do anything to fix it until the rain stops and it has a chance to dry out.

So onwards and upwards I’m hoping to get all the bad stuff out of the way early in the year.

Thanks for stopping by to check out this post, is the Robin your favourite garden bird? I’d love to know. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Ringlet butterfly photography!

On January 24, 2026February 16, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

I hope you’re well!

This weeks post is a butterfly centred photography collection.

Admittedly I took these photographs last summer and because of life never got around to posting them so I thought I’d share them now. 2025 was an amazing year for chasing butterflies, the weather was glorious and there were so many more pollinators than the previous year.

I met so many Ringlet butterflies…they were everywhere, Cabilla Wood (an amazing ancient woodland near to Bodmin), the village churchyard, almost every lane I walked down and even in my very own garden. It. Was. lovely.

All in all I took nearly 3000 photographs in 2025…mainly of bugs, nature and my dogs.

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Looking back on 2025 {reviewing the year!}

On January 3, 2026February 16, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends!

I truly hope you had a magical and happiness filled festive period!

Its already the first weekend in January and I’ve made to executive decision to move my post day to Saturday, for a multitude of reasons but mainly that I always seem to be busy on Fridays and then rush posting. So I’m back for 2026 and my New Years resolution is to definitely try and post something every week without fail (a girl can dream right?!) I began 2025 by reviewing the previous years ups and downs and thought I’d try that again to get the ball rolling…

…and explain my total disappearance from the blog.

Ready?

Lets do this…

The biggest highlight of the year/things I did, I decided at the end of 2024 that I was going to learn something new, a language or a musical instrument – I picked up an old violin in a charity shop near to the beach at Perranporth and was totally set on learning how to play it (spoiler: I didn’t). Instead I learnt to drive!! Literally I’m so damn pleased with myself after finding an instructor I actually managed to learn how to drive in exactly six months. My mum has been a legend and was happy to chaperone me in the car every day for an hour or two until I had my test in the middle of October which I passed first time with only 4 minors!! If you’re reading this from the UK you might have heard on the news how hard it is for learners to get tests so I really didn’t want to fail and have to wait months to try again…I put myself under so much pressure which I didn’t need to and I was just so relieved to have the test over with that for about three weeks I was just randomly saying ‘I’ve passed my driving test!’ If I’m really honest it didn’t sink in for about a month and it was weird to not have to go and practise everyday come rain or shine. The post-learning-to-drive burn out is real though, I’ve never been so mentally exhausted and I got into such a tizzy that life could go back to normal and not just focus on this one thing, that I panicked and stopped blogging/a few of my others hobbies, so its quite nice now that I feel I can pick up all of that again.

I still can’t believe the freedom I’ve gained by being able to just get in the car and go anywhere I feel like. (In the city I always used public transport but now I live in the middle of nowhere I really need a car!).

Even when friends were asking what I wanted for Christmas all I could say was ‘I’ve got my drivers license what more could I want!’.

Literally I’m so pleased with myself.

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Ladybug beetles {One frame}

On October 18, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Greetings Friends!

Autumn is upon us!

So is a short post from me…

The leaves are falling, the warm clothes are out – along with my favourite winter boots and there is also a total abundance of ladybug beetles!! Over the last week they’ve literally decided that since the weather has turned chilly its best to go and find somewhere nice to hibernate for the winter…although quite a few of them have made their way into the kitchen. My butterfly house is also filled with them, its been like flying ant day but prettier.

Its been a couple of months since I last posted a One Frame so while I was watching (and wearing) the ladybugs I thought I’d take as many photos as I could in hopes of a few good snaps to share here.

Like this one, I think they’re harlequin ladybugs, but I’m not an expert and I think all beetles are pretty cool. I actually find it really hard to photograph these teeny tiny fellas, so when I get a snap thats in focus I get quite excited!

So with that in mind I really hope you like this ladybug post and are enjoying the beginnings of autumn wherever you are. I’m planning to post an update to my Wonderland flowers denim jacket embroidery next week.

Thank you so much for reading this post, and have a lovely, peace filled week!