It’s been a year of butterflies, noticed more perhaps as our own colours have ebbed a little amidst the duress of the virus. Whole life cycles of Red Admirals, Commas, Cabbage Whites, Peacocks, Speckled Woods, Orange Tips, Gatekeepers, Common Blues, Meadow Browns and Ringlets have been mapped out in front of us from start to end through each change. An unstoppable flood of colour and abundance on the wing, whilst pallid days of worry and Lockdown stopped us from being abundant.

These butterfly collaborations are on reflection, our claim for some hope back. The virus dampens hope and aspiration, can take taste and smell, but will never take the scent or sense of freedom and the butterflies of 2020 have fed and nourished this within us, all of this long year.

Here are some of these little garden visitors to our home in Suffolk: