Tag: nature

Embroidered Butterfly #12 {Monarch}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs7 Comments

Hello my friends! 

This week I’ve got a new needlework butterfly to share with you and I’ve been really looking forward to making this one! The Monarch is a beautiful orange and black butterfly that spends its time between Canada, America and Mexico. 

As a side note I’ve decided to up the official tally of 61 to include an extra 15 or so butterflies considered to be extinct species of and rare migrants to the UK. As I want to include some of the other rare migrants we occasionally get like the Monarch as well as some of the ones considered extinct in the UK like the Bath white and Large copper – these butterflies still exist in Europe just not here. So my new total is 76! These 15 extra butterflies are all found in The Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Richard Lewington, with really lovely illustrations.

This is #12 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge – only 64 more to go!!!

The Monarch is the largest and possibly the rarest butterfly seen in the UK – in 2023 just three were seen in here. Unfortunately the caterpillars feed on Milkweed plants which aren’t native to the UK, explaining why the butterfly hasn’t bred here, so sadly I’ve never actually seen one of these in the wild.

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Embroidered Butterfly #11 {Grayling}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs6 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Back in the autumn I posted a One frame of a rare Grayling and I wanted to create a needlework version for my butterfly challenge. My actual plan was to post this a couple of weeks before Christmas but everything got a little bit on top of me and I never got round to it.

It was awesome to see a basically endangered species just living its best life out in the wild!

These butterflies have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm and as it aways rests with its wings together which is a shame as they’ve got such pretty markings! I created a male as there’s very little difference between the two sexes.

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Connecting with nature in winter

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends! 

I don’t know about you but I often find winter a tough time of year to connect with. Christmas is always amazing as well as celebrating the solstice in December but it generally just rains a lot and is rather dull and grey in this part of the UK.

Of course there are still plenty of things to do, I’ve got bird feeders in both the front and back gardens and love watching all the little birdies (and the squirrels!) but nature is generally in hibernation and you can’t really play outside in it. 

I suppose staying upbeat this winter has been helped by the fact we’ve had more snow! It wasn’t quite as good as the snow we had back in late November but it gave me a chance to get out and about with my camera and I wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty countryside too! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your week as they did mine.

To start my icy adventure I headed to one of my favourite spots near home, because of the surrounding views I like to imagine that this is a gateway into Middle Earth.

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A Wintery Walk

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography5 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Before I start, I totally meant to post this last week but due to storm Bert I had no power (the perils of living in the countryside!!).

I am so unbelievably excited about this post as before the storm properly hit I woke up to five whole inches of snow!

Snow is one of those things that I will never get tired of and usually when we do get it here its only a light dusting, so the fact it was so deep was amazing (I literally haven’t seen so much snow since I was a kid when we lived in Scotland).

Obviously I just had to go walking in it and wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty winter atmosphere and stroll through the countryside too! I hope these photos bring as much happiness to your day as much as they did mine.

Starting off our wintery walk, I headed to one of the local fields to snap a quick landscape shot, all the fields looked so serene, every one could’ve been a scene on a Christmas card.

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Grayling {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends! 

A while back I got the chance to see a new butterfly and spent the best part of a day wandering around a place called Wheal Fortune – which is an old mining site and great hiking spot, with some awesome views! I even got to see a new type of butterfly!!

So the main focus of this One Frame is the elusive Grayling (Hipparchia semele) – it camouflages so unbelievably well with rocks and gravel that they almost disappear!

This little guy (or girl) was sunbathing in the gravel enjoying the last of the autumn sunshine, they always rest with their wings together and do this weird thing where they lean to whichever side will get more sun. Basically turning themselves into the Wally (or Waldo) of the butterfly world.

It was fascinating, I felt that if I blinked I’d lose it! I took about 50 photos of which about three actually included the fluttery fella!!

Sadly Graylings are listed in the UK as a priority species for conservation so it was awesome to not only see a few in the native habitat but snap an okay photo as well.

I really hope you like this nature filled post and that it spreads a little bit of happiness. Do you have a favourite bug? They are magical creatures and I love watching them. 

Ps. If you wanna see the landscape of Wheal Fortune I posted a One Frame HERE!

Embroidered Butterfly #10 {Comma}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs8 Comments

Hey friends! 

Last week I posted a bonus Butterfly tale about a Comma butterfly that I accidentally rescued on a nettle plant – a rather ragged brown and orange chap who usually lives in the woods, I felt so super excited to have fostered one of these so late in the year that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version. 

Comma have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm. There isn’t too much difference between and males and females (which I’m glad about as the pattern was super fiddly!) All in all my needlework version has a wingspan of about 11cm to keep it inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale.

Its been great to create a different wing shape, the ragged edges were so much fun to try and recreate although the wire was so uncooperative! I know I say this with every one I make but this one is definitely my favourite so far.

Also this rather lovely fella is #10 on my needlework butterfly challenge (whoo-hoo I’m in double figures!!).

That’s a wrap for this week…another butterfly finished only another 50 or so to go!! I’m really hoping that you’ll stay with me while I needlework my way through our native butterflies. Thank you so much for checking out this post!

© ArtyMissK 2024

Raising a Comma Butterfly

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography4 Comments

Hey friends! 

This week I’ve got a bonus butterfly tale for you, I’m really very excited about this one!!

Over the last couple of months I’ve been raising a grand total of 61 Red Admiral butterflies and during that time I’ve dug up many, many nettle plants for them to eat. When they start to pupate I like to add a fresh plant or two so that when they emerge there is a nice, new host plant for them to (hopefully) lay more eggs on.

At one point I had 6 Red ads pupating in a house of their own and after a few days I noticed the nettle I had prepared for them was being eaten, well, it turned out to have an occupant! One lone Comma caterpillar was quite happily eating its way through my new nettle.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) is another of our native butterflies, its one of the quirkiest looking ones we have here. They have scalloped wing edges which with the dark markings on the undersides of its wings camouflage it to resemble a dead leaf! 

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Ore Stained Landscape {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hello my Friends!

I’ve got a new One frame to share with you this week, I recently spent the day at a place called Wheal fortune – which is an old Cornish mining sight used for mining copper and tin up until the 1880’s. 

Anyway, its been an age since I posted a landscape shot (as opposed to a tree shot) and this was such an amazing setting to be in. The mining systems in Cornwall are incredible – this is actually where the pollutants washed away and seeing how the ores have stained the landscape through human activity is weirdly heavy on the soul.

It does however make a beautiful landscape to photograph – it kinda reminds me of a Bob Ross painting (he was an oil painter in the 80/90’s and an all round nice guy) he liked to paint happy little trees…I’m very much of the opinion of in life always try to be a bit like Bob Ross!

I love the layers of this image, there’s the reflective water, the red/orange stained rocks which moves into the bright and rich tones of green and a moody sky. The views of the whole site were both amazing and horrific – its comes as a shock when you see how we (as humans) are willing to destroy the landscape in search of metals and the damage it leaves behind.

That’s it for this week, I hope you like the little slice of landscape serenity. How is the weather where you are? Next weeks post is shaping up to be a new surprise Butterfly tale! 

Thank you so much for reading this post, and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!

Embroidered Butterfly #9 {Red Admiral}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs2 Comments

Hey friends! 

A few weeks back I posted a Butterfly tale about raising a bunch of Red Admiral butterflies and I’ve enjoyed their company all summer (in total I will have raised 60 of them this year) so I had to make a needlework version which is #9 on my embroidered butterfly challenge!

A Red ad has a real life wingspan of about 7.2cm, so its definitely one of our biggest butterflies. My needlework version has a wingspan of about 14.5cm to keep him inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale, so it just beats the Peacock I made recently for size. (Weirdly when I think of Red ads they’re always boys, I have absolutely no idea why.)

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An Early Autumn Flowershoot

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography

Hey friends!

We’ve been blessed with a few extra days of summer and I’ve been holding onto them as much as possible.

I was sitting outside a couple of days ago, listening to the bees buzzing when I suddenly noticed how many of my plants are purple! So I thought why not enjoy the last few rays of perfect sunshine and decided to go on a garden flower safari and I wanted to take you guys along with me so you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and pretty plants and a few bugs too! 

Starting off my flowershoot are these tiny purple daisies, I think they’re called Michaelmas daisies (a type of aster) and are a tough perennial that I don’t remember actually planting, but they’re so pretty poking out from underneath/behind other flowers that I’m not going to disturb them.

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