Tortoiseshell Butterfly and Stones

Liddesdale 5

Orange Tip and Vetch

Wish I Was There ii

Above the River

Speckled Wood Butterfly with Torn Wing

Painted Lady 2

Three or four years ago, I did not see a single butterfly until late in the year, and then there was just a few flutterers. But this year there has been a plethora of butterflies in Coldstream, in the Scottish Borders.  The path called Nuns Walk, which rises high above River Tweed, is lined with buddleia bushes (beneath which is a sheer drop), and these bushes have been full of butterflies, feasting on the buddleia as its blossoms begin to turn brown.  There have been many peacocks, and small tortoishells, and painted ladies, cabbage whites and red admirals.  My husband also saw a ringlet up there.  There are butterflies in the garden too, and yesterday I saw a big yellow moth feeding on the buddleia just outside my studio window.

Painted Lady 1

Tortoishell on the Wasteland

Ringlet Butterfly by the Field Edge