Friday, 20 June 2025

Thinking of the butterfly on mid-summer's eve

 
Driving through Newcastle yesterday, at the lights after the petrol station I saw someone painting on what I now know as a 'junction box' (for more on this, see here, for such 'street art' in our South Dublin Council area, see here, and you might also like to visit the Irish Butterfly Website here ). As we all have noticed over the past number of years, these boxes as well as electrical ones display some very eye-catching scenes. Isn't it lovely to see colour used creatively at the heart of ordinary life, as we walk or drive hurriedly by, our mind focused on the task in hand?  I parked my car further up and came back to have a word with the artist-at-work.  Young Tamara has been living in Newcastle now for four years with her family and is doing the art work she loves for Newcastle Tidy Towns. I took the first photo when talking to her, and the second when returning to Saggart in the evening and saw it completed. The butterfly looks like it's taking flight for the lovely flowers in the wild garden behind!

It's a red admiral and, coincidence, it has alighted on the front page of the current issue of the Far East, the magazine brought out by the Columban Missionaries we used all read long ago in the 50s / 60s!