Last autumn saw lots of Red Admi­ral but­ter­flies hiber­nat­ing in our house. Despite much effort to keep them in the right con­di­tions, sad­ly they did­n’t make it through to spring – it was a long shot. 

I did­n’t want to just throw them away so I pho­tographed them in the spring sun­light, with their del­i­cate beau­ty shin­ing through.