Chasing Butterflies

Being out and about with my camera this summer has provided great joy at a time when my world has felt fractured.  After weeks of confinement, the colourful world of butterflies was a fabulous subject to absorb myself into and I have been enjoying a rewarding journey of learning ever since.  Butterflies are believed to have existed on Earth for 200 million years and with us humans only clocking up 2.8 million years, they clearly have the edge in terms of ancestral rights.  Their cultural meanings are many, freedom, beauty, comfort, transformation - to name just a few.  The peacock butterfly is one of the most commonly seen of the 59 butterfly species in England, and its iridescent colouring makes it one of the most striking.  I have seen frequently on nature walks this summer and I read with interest that the they are said to signify the need for more passion in life.

Orange is a long standing favourite colour and has often dominated the places that I have lived - it is said to be a colour of health and wellbeing.  I was therefore delighted to see my first ever Silver-washed Fritillary butterflies on a most wonderful woodland walk in Langford Budville.  A slightly lighter shade of orange than the male, this female was the first sighting and was similarly enjoying a lunchtime feed in the summer sunshine.  

The Small Tortoiseshell is an orange butterfly commonly sighted in the British Isles from Spring right the way through to Autumn.  On a soothing sunny stroll along Poets Walk in Clevedon, there was this fine specimen doing what it most enjoys, nectaring on a flower.   Sightings of orange butterflies are said to highlight the importance of gut instinct and making healthy decisions.

A capture of a blue butterfly took a great deal of patience on my part, and an acknowledgement that I would have faired better much earlier in the summer. It seems a little unfair to call this a 'Common Blue' as this first open winged capture looks pretty sophisticated to me!  It is said that blue symbolises loyalty and the ability to connect, communicate and express - all of which feel super important at time when even the strongest links have been tested to the hilt.

The Speckled Wood butterfly may look a touch dowdy by comparison to its more colourful cousins.  A school uniform colour that resulted in years of avoidance, brown is a colour that I have come to much appreciate since living on the Somerset Levels.  This primary earth colour dominates my studio decor and I feel helps to create a stable and secure atmosphere.  The Speckled Wood frequents woodland and scrubland and this particular specimen was sighted close by to my studio at Westhay on the Avalon Marshes - resting quietly on a gate warmed by the summer sun.

I saw small brown and orange butterflies on pretty much all of my Somerset walks throughout the summer.  All the same, it took me most of the summer weeks to be able to distinguish between a Small Heath, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper.  I am now quietly confident that this is a Gatekeeper as it has two spots in the upper wing black eye spot - the female Meadow Brown which is very similar only has one.

Finding butterflies in large numbers was particularly delightful, as was the case when I took a late afternoon walk at RSPB Ham Wall.  Red Admirals fluttered around me, warming their bodies on the sweet scented Umbellifer in the last rays of sunshine.  It is interesting that they are called Red Admirals, as their predominant colour is close to black.  Viewed by many as a dead colour and perhaps not even a colour at all, a black butterfly is said to be a reminder to embrace change and remember that with time it will pass.

Large cabbage white butterflies start their lives with a form that most vegetable gardeners intensely dislike to see.  Yet when their metamorphosis to a butterfly is complete, the simplicity of their colour and markings is one that can be truly admired by all.  The female has two dark spots on the upper wing and the male just one.  White butterflies are said to signify a requirement to fine a place of calm in a tumultuous world and this lady basking on Verbena Bonariensis in a friend's Somerset garden certainly looked serene and peaceful 

Then there is the mix of these polar colours, a combination I find very appealing.  Luckily for me, the Marble White butterfly is most commonly found in Southern England in rough grassland and  woodland clearings - exactly where I found this one!

As I lived out the last days of an unprecedented summer, I reflected on all that I have learnt.  'Chasing Butterflies' truly sums up many of my days - tentatively rebuilding daily life and wondering and often fretting that achievement might be blown away by the next breath of wind.  What I found very early on was that butterflies really do not need to be chased at all and that the best thing to do was to sit down somewhere lovely and wait patiently.  This Comma Butterfly in my Somerset Levels garden was a case in point and reminded me how beautiful things can often come to us simply with relative ease.

“May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun, and find your shoulder to light on, to bring you luck, happiness, and riches today, tomorrow and beyond.”

Irish Prayer