Butterfly Summer

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What makes this one special is the brooding atmosphere of secrets waiting to be discovered, which builds like a gathering summer storm' - Books for Keeps The book had been moving along at a slow enough pace for me as there was a huge amount of setting up to do and then all of a sudden an event turned everything on its head and finally we got to the heart of the matter and I began to take more of a an interest in what was going on. Nina discovers there is a legacy, a heritage to which she has a right to as she is near to turning 26. Nina hears of the house Keepsake which is now rightfully hers, the question is does she really want it and all that it brings or is she happy to meander along in life a little bit lost and not quite happy with everything going on? Nina wasn’t a character that I especially warmed to, I felt she expected all the answers to be there right in front of her fairly straight forward and requiring no thought process. I wanted more of an element of discovery and uncovering the past on Nina’s part. It felt too dragged out in the present and bits of Nina’s so called journey went over my head. In my mind the story only got going when the past began to come to light. I liked that there were a lot of unforeseen moments and twists in the story. It was interesting to get to know all these different generations of Parr women and I really liked the inheritance fact of the story.

RSPB

Thanks to Butterfly Conservation for letting us use their images throughout this article. For more information on UK butterflies and how you can help them, please visit Butterfly Conservation.org. Here you will find a wealth of information to help you find and identify butterflies and moths.Whilst the summer is all about having fun, there is part of me that wants the kids to do a little learning as well and these Bug and Butterfly themed Learning and Sensory Activities are great with kids. Letting part of your garden go wild, with nettles, thistles, grasses and other “weeds”, will provide a place for caterpillars to feed and pupate, ensuring you have a new generation of butterflies later on Two books within one. For the main part The Butterfly Summer is the contemporary story of Nina Parr and Keepsake, the magical home that is her birthright. Interspersed with her story is that of her grandmother, Theodora aka Teddy. There are just so many ways that you can get creative with bugs and butterflies here’s just a few to try In the UK there are currently 57 resident species of butterfly and two regular migrants. Of these, it is estimated that 76% have declined in abundance, occurrence or both over the past 40 years. Almost all of these losses can be attributed to man-made changes such as habitat destruction and pollution, along with larger patterns of weather and climate change.

Identify British butterflies | The Wildlife Trusts

Truly great butterfly years are the third good summer in a row – so the abundance of butterflies of in 1976 was helped by fine summers in 74 and 75,” said Oates. The story hinges around the inheritance but also about wrongs that were done and sacrifices made to right those wrongs to atone for mistakes made generations before the present Nina was born. You can feel the force of those generations reaching out across time which makes this a compelling read. Research by scientists at Butterfly Conservation confirms that the long-term population trend of some of our most charismatic insects is indeed downward, with more than three-quarters of the UK’s butterflies and two-thirds of larger moths in decline. As Nina begins to unravel her previously unaware of family secrets, the reader also learns more about Teddy – her past, her experiences and her connection with a house called Keepsake. I loved as well the lighter element of it showing the beauty of small town, countryside life, like how sweet and lovely the close-knit community was. It was my ideal community to be honest. It was also interesting the way it explored other aspects that were more a secondary aspect of the story like coming of age romance, developing feelings, as part of puberty and growing up in a way.

Butterfly Conservation

But we should remember that butterfly populations have always fluctuated from year to year, depending largely on the prevailing weather conditions. To assess these figures more carefully, we really need to look at the long-term trends, which are rather less positive. For many of Britain’s favourite summer butterflies, including the once-common and familiar small tortoiseshell, there has been a steady decline over the past 40 years or so. This is due to a combination of factors, of which the most serious are the intensification of farming, combined with a more general fragmentation and loss of habitat.