Hello and thanks for taking the time to read my newsletter about marking microseasons in the pages of my sketchbook.
I love the Japanese name of this microseason: Rotten grass becomes fireflies. It is so evocative, yet rotten things is not something I am quick to associate with the near-peak of summer! Yet I have noted a bit of lull in the local flora after the bright few weeks of early wildflowers.
While I still see daisies, cow parsley, buttercups about, the sheer range of colours found in early summer has receded back to the many shades of green encountered on my most recent (rainy) walk through the woods.
There are signs of new colours emerging, though, the first signs of honeysuckle and bramble flowers (perhaps the subject of newsletters to come!)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F432af034-f45e-47c2-93ff-47c1707e04a6_3024x4032.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F89caba0a-f7fd-4926-9309-aed03d9d3586_3024x4032.jpeg)
In the spirit of the Japanese microseason, I thought I’d dedicate this time, this brief interlude in the exciting developments of the season, to another interlude of sorts, the ‘June Gap’ for butterfly season. This is when all the butterflies seen in the springtime - the peacocks and cabbage whites, in my case - have now died and their offspring have yet to emerge.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F119e1c25-95a8-4f5e-800a-e71a78912e35_3024x4032.jpeg)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_720,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2362c4bc-69d3-4ae2-8c2c-ab5a98f41d98_4032x3024.jpeg)
I’ve shared how microseasons often get me thinking about the cycles of life and death that surround us always in nature, which is so beautifully captured in the phrase ‘Rotten grass becomes fireflies’. I anticipate that the waning wildflowers here in Scotland will make way for the next generation of butterflies soon enough.
Until next microseason,
Natalie
Sketchbook Notes:
This week, I made a somewhat silly spread on British butterflies. I thought it’d be cool to make the wings out of painted tracing paper. Something then possessed me to glue in their outlines too. Then I totally lost it with the weird flowers!
The afternoon sun was good, though.