I mentioned the Amsterdam Botanic Gardens earlier, but forgot to mention their wonderful butterfly garden. One of their glasshouses is devoted to the species –  brightly coloured or severely striped: butterflies are magic.

I had neglected to bring my camera, so the picture above is taken with my mobile phone. Which is not ideal when photographing butterflies. To do better I took out my Nikon camera and photographed butterflies in our garden. Butterflies are there in great numbers, attracted by the wallflower that is a recent addition  – erysimum ‘bowles’ mauve’ has flowered practically non-stop through the year.

I’m jealous of one of the Wiki images flanking the entry about the peacock butterfly (inachis io):