An Appearance and a Coincidence.

I was coming out of my bathroom this morning when something small and dark flew towards me and continued over my shoulder. At first I assumed it was a moth, even though moths are rarely seen in winter. I turned and saw that it was, in fact, a butterfly trying frantically to get out through the closed window.

In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never seen a butterfly in the house. Butterflies are not much given to the habit. Moths are regular invaders, being attracted to the room lights after dark, but butterflies don’t fly at night. They spend their days outside busily feeding on flowers, and then disappear until the next day. And they only fly during the warmer months.

And then there are two interesting coincidences. It was a Red Admiral butterfly, which is the same species as the one featured on my blog banner and also the species which plays such a notable part in my short story The Visitor. The circumstances of its appearance are also eerily similar.

So what was it doing in my house? Hibernating, I suppose. But why did it wake up into a cold bathroom in early March?

I did a little research into the folklore around butterflies, but it was all rather vague stuff about butterflies being identified with the soul or spirit, and their appearance representing signs of changing fortunes which can be anything from unexpected luck to death. Not much to go on there, and probably irrelevant anyway.

The main point, I suppose, is that I opened the window and set it free. I have little confidence that it will survive whatever remains of the winter season, but I assumed that freedom would be the overriding priority for a butterfly.