Lots of Butterflies

 

Normally I clear the fallen apples in the front garden to avoid an infestation of wasps, but this year being away on a late holiday, I returned to find a lot of ‘falls’ rotting on the gravel, but instead of wasps which I expected to find, there was a ‘scintilla’ or ‘flutter’ of butterflies sucking, I presume, at the sugar, and not a wasp to be seen. There has been each day this week at least, without exaggeration, three to four dozen busily flying around as the falls ferment on the ground, I really haven’t the heart to pick them up. It’s such a wonderful sight. The smell alone is enough to inebriate you as you walk up the garden path, and tonight to compound the thrill of seeing them, four of the most colourful ‘red admirals’ took to rest on my arm as I walked amongst them. A little girl of about seven or eight remarked, with I’m sure a tear of utter joy and wonder in her eyes as she stood watching from the gate for a good ten minutes. “It’s like fairyland”.  So softly she spoke, with that charming childlike innocence they seem to acquire at that age, with a reverence in her little voice that made me feel the wonder of life around me.

Oh to see the beauty of nature through a child’s eyes again.