Ever since I started my garden I’ve had a lot of lovely butterflies visiting. Or maybe I just didn’t notice them before. In any case I love them. They are like a visit from my childhood. Before I started school I used to spend what feels like a great deal of time in the garden with my brother, who is only 11 months younger than me. My mother would put a pinafold apron over our clothes and send us out into the garden. We loved looking for insects. We’d get especially excited about grass hoppers and prey mantis, which I no longer see around very much. We also loved chasing butterflies. They just looked magical to us.

I see the same excitement in Poppet’s face when he spots a butterfly in our garden. He runs around chasing the butterfly shouting farfallina, farfallina!

I spotted this lovely creature in the garden this afternoon. She only flew in for a short while but I managed to rush out and take a photo.