www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Over the winter, when real butterflies are hard to find, my dreams are populated with imaginary ones. Barely a night goes by when I'm not off to some fantastic location, photographing rare and beautiful species. Last night it was purple emperors in Gibraltar (anomalously), followed by Spanish festoons and western dappled whites (in a part of Gibraltar that looked disturbingly like my local Col de La Croix). I've probably seen as many different species while fast asleep as I have during the day time. As I wake up, I always think, 'Damn, it was only a dream - but at least I have the photos', which is, of course, a silly thought.

Does anyone else dream butterflies, or have I got a particularly virulent form of the lep bug?

Guy

I think it must be catching - I was watching Brown Hairstreak in my garden last night

I think we may have found that elusive definition of "anorak"

Cheers,

- Pete

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Many times I've dreamt of fabulous butterflies in far flung places that I've never been to. Equally I dream of finding my own (and photographing) species that I have yet to see in my own garden.
So disappointing when I wake and realise that it was another dream!

Denise

Funny - I'd never thought of lepsters as anoraks! Anyway, I'm glad to discover I'm quite normal, and wish you all exciting adventures tonight!

And no, Bryan, I've never astralled over to Gurnigelbad. I don't have that sort of dream.

Guy

padfield wrote: Anyway, I'm glad to discover I'm quite normal...
Guy

Wait a minute! No-one actually said that, Guy!

I was reading a book by W H R Rivers, published in 1923, called "Conflict and Dream".

Captain Rivers treated shell-shocked officers at Craiglockhart Hospital, Edinburgh, during the First World War. One of his patients was Siegfried Sassoon and another inmate was Wilfred Owen. This story has been made into a part fact/part fictional film, "Regeneration". Harrowing, but highly recommended.

Rivers believed that our dreams are attempts at resolving internal conflict, which our minds do not have the chance to do during our waking hours. This is how he treated his patients, by getting them to remember their dreams.

It's interesting that you dream of Spanish festoons in Gibraltar. Here is a long-standing territorial dispute between Spain and Britain and this may well have something to do with your status as an expat and vocation as a lepidopterist.

No need to worry, Guy! I have also dreamed of butterflies and I'm talking complete bo*****s as usual

Bryan

glad I am not the only one too. I dreamed I was following a group of wood white around and then I saw some really tiny Small Tortoiseshell (small copper sized) ones and thought, there is something wrong as they seem to be getting smaller every day.

My dad said he had a ream where he saw a large butterfly and caught it and was bringing back home to show me, but as he was walking past, he bumped into Stephen Fry and said "I am just taking this bat back to find out what it is" and he looked and he had a bat in his hands.

Guess this is what happens at times.

Thanks Bryan - I'll see if I can get hold of a copy of that book.

I did actually make quite a detailed study of dreams many years ago, taking Freud's 'Interpretation of Dreams' as my starting point. The mechanics of Freud's psychology might be up the spout but his observations are fascinating.

Dave: In those deep, sub-rational parts of the mind that produce thousands of associations a second for higher processing, the sounds of words often spark off logically unrelated concepts. I would suggest that a bat and Stephen Fry originated in the 'but' and 'fly' bits of the word butterfly. I won't be so impertinent as to do any further analysis of your Dad's disturbing dream!!

Guy

Had another intresting dream last night. Dreamed I was standing beside the only living forest of English Elm in England and was amazed by it, beside a wildlife estury. I had my 400D and was looking for a large tortoiseshell population as I knew this was the only site left in UK for them cause of all elm trees.

Then it was getting dark and I saw a curlew and decided to photo it cause I love them and I was in a mud flat and was on a rock near curlew and pressed a button and a tripod shot out the side of the camera and put a cover on the lens of the camera. But I sent the camera on "tilt" and when I pressed to take the pic the camera tilted.

Then another curlew flew up behind me and started attacking me and I woke uo

Sounds uncannily like the Deben Estuary near Woodbridge, where white-letter hairstreaks used to fly (perhaps they still do, but I haven't seen one there for a few years) and where I photographed a large tortoiseshell in 1985. Plenty of curlews too, though they are not known for their aggressive tendencies.

I think you might be clairvoyant, Dave!!

Guy

Thats intresting to know. Think curlew came from a while ago when I saw 6 or so curlews flying over the forest I was in, but the rest, I am not so sure, strange.

I know this is a bit of a "bump" for this thread, but I'm just working my way through a lot of the older stuff

About two years ago I had a very clear dream about visiting a bungalow to see an elderly man - and he was raising Camberwell Beauties in his (beige painted) hallway. They were flying free, and larger than real life. They looked so dark against the walls.

It's always stayed with me, quite a magical dream when you consider that most of my nightime brain activites seem to revolve around calling the emergency services or missing trains (my boyfriend thinks this is extremely funny)

I too have had wonderful dreams of butterflies. I shall start writing them down - they are so special As a child I remember dreaming I was a butterfly!

And that reminds me of some little story of whether he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man. Anyone come across that cos I can't remembe rthe context now?

Butterflies are creeping into my dreams too - I was dreaming of them last night.

I dreamed the other night that I saw what appeared to be a underwing moth of some sort and tried to get a photo of it, but it flew onto a leaf of a tree, and disappeared.

Had a very vivid dream last night that a Large Tortoiseshell appeared on the hanging baskets at my workplace - I was desperately trying to get photos before it disappeared - but I couldn't get the photos to post on the Sitings forum and I was worried that no-one would believe me. When i went back outside there was a Monarch on another basket, and people had crowded round trying to get a photo and I was rather pushed out of the way.

Despite my close on three score and ten, and a lifetime's sometimes all consuming interest in Natural History, particularly Butterflies, I have never dreamed about them. I rarely ever dream so that I wake up and discover I was only dreaming. I think that's because I always go to bed not at bedtime, but when I'm tired be that 3 am or 11 pm. That way I always sleep soundly.

Guess I've missed out. Once or twice I've had very vivid dreams about such things as gorgeous Pauline in accounts ~ many moons ago ~ so vivid that I clearly remember the acute disappointment on waking up that .... it was only a dream after all ...

What is man without his dreams and aspirations ... or, women for that matter.

I suppose if I had plucked up enough courage to chance my luck with Pauline .... her response may have been ... In your dreams mate .... there again maybe not... Now I shall never know. By big coincidence saw her a few years ago.... sadly no longer one of the finest female specimens I've ever encounterd ...several stones heavier and very grey ....

Sadly, nothing lasts forever...

So ... missed out again.. maybe not..

Funny old game life...

.... Happy hunting...
.

Lynn wrote: ...And that reminds me of some little story of whether he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was a man. Anyone come across that cos I can't remembe rthe context now?

Lynn, you may have seen it in "An Obsession with Butterflies" by Sharman Apt Russell (William Heinemann, London, 2003), pp11/12:

The Taoist master, Chuang Tze,...wrote: "I dreamed I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither. I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly, and was unconscious of my individuality as a man. Suddenly I awoke and there I lay myself again. Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."

Makes my head hurt

Bryan

I am glad I am not the only one too!
I my dream I could hear (no imagery in my dreams) loads of peacock and red admiral butterflies flying around me. I could feel them. But also there were new butterfly fluttering sounds, ones I hadn't come across! New species? I would like to think so!
Does anyone else hear the butterflies fluttering in their dreams or is that just me?
Mouse

The other day I read on my local wildlife site, that a man in Keynsham (not that far from where I live) has had a male SWF in his garden tree times in the last few years.

That night I dreamed that I too had a SWF in my garden. I was so disappointed when I realized that it was just a dream!

I'm always dreaming about butterflies.
Denise

So was this dream just an audio channel, Mouse, with no video at all? That's bizarre! Even when I dream music I see it written out... I dream maths a lot too, and then all the objects in my dreamworld twist themselves into the theory I'm working on. Once I had an absolutely clear dream that spacetime was composed of 132 spatial dimensions and 12 time dimensions and I saw them all - wonderful (so when Hawking catches up with me, remember, you heard it here first)!! But no, I can't recall ever having heard a butterfly in a dream before, though I'm quite sure I will now!!

Guy

PS - we'll find you a silver-washed frit, Denise! They're even better in real life!