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.
Continue reading “Speckled Wood butterfly {One frame}”
Hello my Friends!
Remember me?!! Its been like six months since I last posted anything, and I thought I would restart my blog with a One Frame of one of my favourite spring flowers – Bluebells!
Continue reading “Bluebells {One frame}”
Hello friends!
The sun is here, the sky is blue and I’ve got a One frame to share with you! (Oooh that rhymed!!). I’ve had a mini break from the blog to go on adventures and find things to snap…
Continue reading “Mating Small White butterflies {One frame}”
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.
Continue reading “Raising Large White Butterflies”
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.
Continue reading “Raising Painted lady Butterflies”
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.
Continue reading “Raising Small tortoiseshell Butterflies”
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!
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.
Continue reading “Raising Orange Tip Butterflies”
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!
Hello my Friends!
Can you believe it, we’re already halfway through February?! Winter has been so cold and wet this year that it feels like spring is taking an age to get here, so I’ve been taking advantage of every moment of nice weather I can get.
Anyway, its been about a month since I posted my last One Frame and I’ve got a new landscape shot to share this week. The coast of Cornwall is magical and this photo was taken on Perranporth beach where there are some amazing caves/coves, this one is one of my favourites, its not so much a cave but an archway and has so many colours and textures in its stones.
In a weird way it reminds me of a Hag Stone, just on a much bigger scale.
The water that has been trapped until the tide comes back to claim it is super clear but Freezing cold and so much deeper than it looks!
I kinda feel this particular spot might be a portal to Narnia or some other fairytale realm, with how the sun is shining on the cliff behind the arch. One day I might even be brave enough to swim through it…
That’s it for this week, I hope you like the little slice of beachy paradise. How is the weather where you are? Next weeks post is either gonna be the second Fleeting Thought or more art.
Thank you so much for reading this post, and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!
ArtyMissK 
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