LIVING ON THE VERGE

In September 2019, I watched as dozens of butterflies danced among the wildflowers in a patch measuring just a few square metres. Painted ladies, commas, red admirals and holly blues flitted between red campion, yarrow, nettle and sow thistle in the late evening sun.

But this wasn’t in a nature reserve; I was by a busy B-road and this small verge was supporting a plethora of life in an otherwise nature-barren landscape. Many of us speed past these havens – windows rolled up, eyes focused on the ribbon of asphalt ahead –