Butterfly magic in our Indian summer

Damien Enright on the joys an Indian summer brings.

CABBAGE WHITE caterpillars gallop up the wall against which the nasturtiums still bloom in a riot of colour.

The eaves, towards which nature beckons them, are 30 feet above. Upward they climb, per ardua ad astra, to reach these eaves to which they will adhere themselves with a silken thread and grow an outer shell which will protect them through the winter. They will emerge, eight months from now, as white, fluttering creatures, dancing in the sunlight, if there is any sun next year.