Something that we rarely see in our small village in Abruzzo are glorious Swallowtail Butterflies.  In Italian they’re called il macaone and there are supposed to be 9 varieties across the country.

I’ve put their absence down to the caterpillars loving fennel & carrot and my neighbours being exemplary debuggers on their orto and smallholdings; perhaps the recent heatwave has meant their energy downtime has given a welcome lease of life to these gentle Swallowtails flitting through the high meadowland around Bascianella.  Now to find out where all the Hummingbird Moths have gone to which are normally plentiful but this year I haven’t seen one.

Author: Sam Dunham

Sam is a very lucky midlife 'mamma' to A who is 11 and juggles her work as a self-employed freelance travel and food web content manager and copywriter and EFL teacher - she is the founder of English in the Woods. She is the co-founder of the social enterprises: The Abruzzo Blogger Community and Let's Blog Abruzzo. She is currently writing the book 'Abruzzo: Folk and Food.