Whenever I hear the word butterfly, I recall my late father and his horror when he saw the cabbage butterfly, or large white, appear in the garden in summer. He grew a lot of cabbage, and the white butterflies loved to lay their eggs on the cabbage leaves and the ensuing caterpillars could devour lots of cabbage overnight.
I was appointed the exterminator person to dispose of these eggs before they emerged into caterpillars. I rather enjoyed my role as inspector of cabbage leaves. You had a choice of squashing them or throwing them into a bucket of water. I was successful in protecting the cabbage crop most years. There was also an added incentive in that I was allowed sell some fresh cabbage every day and enjoyed the pecuniary reward for my labours and industry.
I, like many more people admired the butterfly who got all the publicity and admiration, because of their elegant colours and flight patterns, while their offshoot commandos, the caterpillars, did all the destruction of the cabbage crop and later devoured our nasturtium leaves as well.
Apart from my father’s hatred of the large white we loved to see the Red Admiral butterfly appear and we ran around after them with our jars and lids to catch them and have a close-up view of them. We never damaged any and they were released quickly.
I also loved the ‘Comma” butterflies which appears around gardens and woods and are particularly fond of areas where nettles flourish . I have seen quite a few in our garden this year despite our lack of nettles. They are very like the ‘Tortoise Shell’ butterfly and are very attractive with their light brown colouring.
Pride of place must go to the “Peacock Butterfly’ for all its beautiful colours. We have noted quite a few of them in the woods this summer season. They frequent an area near the river where nettles abound. They are truly aesthetically beautiful and add so much colour to the environment they inhabit.
All butterflies start as tiny eggs and then out comes wriggly caterpillars ready to gorge on juicy cabbage and other leaves. Later the caterpillar makes a chrysalis and starts to change. In the season after the chrysalis the caterpillar has turned into a lovely butterfly after the cocooning and is ready to fly and start the whole metamorphism all over again.
Mohammed Ali was one of the greatest boxers of all time. I remember him being asked about his style of boxing and his movement in the ring. He said, “I float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” What a lovely description of his boxing performance. You can mentally paint a picture of a butterfly floating around the sky on a nice sunny day and then picture Mohammed's ducking and diving and floating around the ring.
People use butterflies to describe nervousness. Before any tense situation a person might say, “I’ve got butterflies in my tummy, ‘or” I’ve got butterflies flying around in my tummy”.
I leave the final bit of this blog to that lovely Danish writer of children’s’ literature, Hans Christian Anderson in his book ‘The Butterfly “when the butterfly says “Just living is not enough, one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower “.
Go on, be a daredevil, get out and taste the freedom of the great outdoors today and come home with lungs full of the fresh outdoor air and your nostrils full of the aromas and smells of the great outdoors. You might even see a butterfly and evoke some childhood summertime memories.
Mick O Callaghan
05/08/2024
Next Monday we will pay a flying blogger visit to some flies in our lives
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