WE sit silently in our pews, like beasts in their stalls. Outside, winter winds scour the trees. Hardly have we settled to our reflections before a clattering breaks out by the east windows. I open one eye to watch a red admiral rising and falling against the blue glass and the red. A single butterfly beating its wings may cause a hurricane on the other side of the world, as the saying goes. Roused from a wintry torpor by somebody turning on the heating, this one certainly makes a racket in church.
Among fully grown insects, it is butterflies, ladybirds and various bees that go torpid in winter. Technically, only three British mammals actually hibernate: the dormouse, the hedgehog and bats. However, we all get a little droopy in the countryside…
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Country Life (Digital) - 1 Issue, February 12, 2025