|
Yellow Wings - A Journey of survival |
|
|
|
|
Page 1 of 5
The Migration of the Clouded Yellow Butterfly by Jean Lawman
It is noon on a fine autumn day; the sunshine is glassy and delicate. I am standing on a grass-edged path that leads downhill to a rocky cove. A stream glitters behind some willows, chuckling on its way to the sea. Three Buzzards circle overhead, filling the air with lazy mewing, and a Green Woodpecker 'yaffles' alarm from the stark white limbs of a dead tree. Tall Escallonia and Pittosporum hedges enclose tiny fields on either side of the path, evidence of small scale cultivation; a once upon a time, thriving flower growing industry - Sweet Violets, Daffodils, Jacks (Gladioli). Here women worked while men fished in real Cornwall.
Had it been spring, fields higher in the valley would be flushed purple with patches of Sweet Violet, banks and hedges brimming white and yellow with stray Daffodils, but now, in autumn, there are other colourful stragglers. These late flowers are either cerise or a cool pale pink - Kaffir lilies; loose spikes of flowers opening from the base upwards and drooping with the weight of unopened buds. Each flower has long slender petals issuing from an equally slender bud, like a slim tulip; the leaves are narrow, grey green and cross over one another. One field was full of lilies, they were scattered like stars beneath walls of pale green, light reflecting leaves.
Pale variety of Clouded Yellow - Colias croceus var. helice Picture by Paul Browning, Cornwall Butterfly Conservation.
Whenever I think of this valley, I think of flowers. Even on grey days in February, you find plenty of colours here; no mean colours either, loud splashes of it everywhere. You feel you have made a discovery, even though you see the same every year; vibrant pinks and reds of Camellias, Azaleas, early Magnolias and Rhododendrons shout at you, but there are subtle colours too, like the powdery pink and white dustings of winter flowing Heather, lemon yellow Mimosa and mauve Periwinkle, creeping its evergreen way among the crystal granite stone. There is gold in the stream - Marsh Marigold, while on the banks, the nodding white bells with green veins are the first blooms of Three-cornered Garlic, a Mediterranean escapee. Sunlight picks out the myriads of Daffodils and Narcissi; they literally glow cream, orange and yellow; they are everywhere, but you will have to search for the early Celandine.
|
