A few days ago, I walked past our carpobrotus succulent, and a cloud of butterflies wafted out of it.
There were at least fifty of them, swirling around me in gentle waft of colour.
I was completely, utterly enchanted. How often does a proper, fairy tale moment occur in our own backyards?
I don’t know what’s changed this year, but Sydney is full of butterflies. We normally only get cabbage moths in our garden, so seeing these coloured beauties en masse was a real treat.
The carpobrotus has thrived at our place – it began life as a single stem in a tiny pot from Bunnings in 2012, and has since grown into the large shrub in the photo below. It lives in two small terracotta bowls of potting mix – one that it was planted in, and the other which it overgrew. Pete waters it occasionally, but other than that, we leave it completely alone. It has attractive glossy green leaves for most of the year, then puts on this stunning display when the weather warms up…
Best of all, it’s now a butterfly sanctuary…
This variety is known as the Australian Painted Lady (it’s botanical name is Vanessa (Cynthia) kershawi – isn’t that fabulous?). It’s a native species, and quite small (about 5cm across)…
The underside of their wings are nearly as beautiful as the tops…
I spent a very happy hour sitting on our back deck with my Lumix camera, taking photos of the butterflies feeding. It was intriguing to watch them plunge their long proboscises into the yellow centres of the flowers, and then gently pulse their wings up and down as they sipped…
Another visitor to our yard was the Meadow Argus. These photos don’t do justice to this Australian native, which is actually far prettier in real life. It has a slight iridescent sheen that the camera couldn’t quite capture…
Each butterfly supped at its own flower, happily feeding side by side…
You can just see the blue shimmer on its body in this photo…
As I was watching, I noticed that the hoverflies were also big fans of the carpobrotus. They’re regular visitors to our garden and I love the way they hang in mid-air, deciding where to land…
They too were feeding on the nectar provided at the sanctuary…
This photo turned out particularly well – sharp enough to see the lacy detailing on the wings, as well as the teeny ant on the left…
Sometimes, I think our eyes get too big, and it’s easy to forget just how spectacular life can be, right outside our back door step.
Have a glorious weekend, lovely friends! ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 