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?

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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.

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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.

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A Sycamore in Spring {One frame}

On May 19, 2023May 3, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my Friends!

Can you believe it, we’re already sneaking up on the end of May?! Its finally stopped raining long enough to get some proper gardening done and I’m totally loving being outdoors!

Anyway, its been about a month since I posted my last One Frame and I’ve got a new shot of some beautiful green leaves to share with you this week. When I moved into my home in I totally fell in love with the huge tree at the bottom of the garden and have had to wait for months to identify it.

I did try guessing, but was way off!

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Embroidered Butterfly #2 {Orange tip} (updated May 2024)

On May 12, 2023May 17, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs2 Comments

Hello my friends!

**This post was edited on 17/5/24 as I’ve remade the butterflies and updated the pictures**

How ya doing?

I’ve got a new butterfly embroidery to share this week. I recently got the chance to be the adoptive parent of some Orange tip butterfly pupae – I did a post on them a couple of weeks ago (links at the bottom incase you fancy giving it a read!)

So this is #2 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge. According to Butterfly Conservation there are 61 types of butterflies in the UK.

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Amongst the Spring Wildflowers

On April 28, 2023July 7, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello friends!

Aren’t flowers just one of life’s loveliest things?

My inner fairy just wants to be set free and sit amongst them. I recently went on a nature hike and the woods are filled with some of the prettiest wildflowers I’ve ever seen. A thing I love about hiking in the wilds here is that although its hours before you see another human being, the most amazing birdsong fills the air.

I wanted to take you guys along with me so you can enjoy the relaxing atmosphere and pretty flowers too! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your day as much as they did mine.

Ready?

Let’s go!

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Fledgling Blackbird {One frame}

On April 21, 2023July 7, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello friends!

Seeing as spring has definitely sprung I thought I’d post a little nature filled one frame this week, I was out for a walk the other day and met a recently fledged juvenile blackbird!

Isn’t he beautiful?! At least I think its male because of the really dark wing feathers. Something I didn’t know is that baby blackbirds usually leave the nest before they can actually fly and scramble their way around trees and bushes, while hoping not to be eaten!

Blackbirds are actually a member of the Thrush family and are one of the UK’s most common birds they also have the prettiest of birdsong.

When I took this photo it was a bit nippy but the light was amazing and he was quite happy for me to take his photo. With my camera (which is a bit of a relic) anything at a distance gets a little bit blurry, but this little fella was only about a foot away so I was able to capture his details and I’m super happy with the final image.

So that’s it for this week, one lovely blackbird photographed for this post. I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite wild bird? They are wonderful creatures and I love watching them. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

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.

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Embroidered Butterfly #1 {Small tortoiseshell} (updated May 2024)

On March 31, 2023May 17, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs10 Comments

Hello friends!

**This post was edited on 17/5/24 as I’ve remade the butterfly and updated the pictures**

I’ve got a new butterfly embroidery to share this week. I’m really happy with the Small tortoiseshell photograph (that I posted last week!) I particularly love this type of butterfly, they always seem so happy – don’t get me wrong all butterflies seem happy, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who didn’t like/was scared of them (not that there’s anything wrong in that of course).

So now I’ve created a few practice versions of these I have decided to give myself a bit of a challenge…I’m gonna have a go at creating all 61 types of British butterflies…in scale with each other!

That’s right in scale!!

Yep I’ve gone and got cabin fever cos its been raining too long! I mean honestly it’s been persisting pretty much everyday since the middle of February.

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Small tortoiseshell Butterfly {One frame}

On March 24, 2023July 7, 2023 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

I hope life has been treating you well.

Its been 4 or 5 weeks since my last One Frame and I’ve got a new one to share with you!

Recently I found a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly sunbathing on some really over grown stinging nettles and got a few really good photos of the wee beastie without disturbing it!! Doesn’t it just have the most fluffiest body ever!? And I love how much detail I managed to capture – its eyes are amazing.

The Small tortoiseshell is one of the most well-known butterflies we have in Britain, they are quite possibly my favourite and like a fairly wide range of nectar heavy flowers – this year I’m gonna start creating my own butterfly garden for all pollinators to try and do a little bit extra for nature. Hopefully I’ll find lots of other butterflies to photograph.

The natural light was so good that this image taken with my Nikon in macro mode, and only brightened a little in post prod.

Well that’s pretty much it, one photo of one butterfly, I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite bug? They are wonderful little creatures that run our world and make no fuss whatsoever. I’m thinking about creating an embroidered Small tortoiseshell similar to my others (hopefully you’ll come back to see it next week!)

As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!