Buddleia Butterflies
While I was hanging over a wall in a little village that is divided by a stream, I found myself overlooking a derelict garden where a few blackcurrants struggled to keep their heads above the embrace of briars and a forest of weed. Close by the wall was a buddleia bush (Buddleia David,) and on the bush was a peacock butterfly. It was a perfect specimen with a texture like satin and a colour as grand as its namesake. As I watched, it flicked its wing o. open and enjoyed the sun, then snapped them shut again as though absorbing the warmth. When it moved to another bloom, I discovered I had been blind to the presence of others, and I hastily began to count until I had numbered fifteen all about the floral spikes of the bush. At the lower end of the garden was a nettle-bed, beloved of this butterfly's caterpillar and I decided that the place is particularly suitable for the peacock, which I had never before seen in such numbers.
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