www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

What a cracking website and what a refreshing change to read forums in which the contibutors lack neither grey matter nor a reasonable mastery of written English!

It's good to know I'm not the only butterfly 'nut' in the world! I've been a fan since collecting the Brooke Bond PG Tips Tea cards in the mid 1960s. Anyone remember them?

Hi David

Wish I'd seen your post sooner!

I discovered this wonderful site only recently and I agree entirely with your sentiments!

I fondly remember the Brooke Bond cards. My brother and I (with the help of grandparents and swaps with friends) collected the full set of fifty and stuck them in the album, which was packed with information and could be acquired for the princely sum of sixpence! As we reached the point where only one or two cards were needed to complete the set, we would accompany Mum to the local Co-op and try and persuade her to buy many more packets of tea than were strictly necessary!

These beautiful cards triggered our interest in butterflies and all the kids in the street seemed to be collecting them. They were splendid identification aids as we searched the nearby woods and meadows to see the butterflies for real.

A couple of years ago my brother suddenly produced the still complete album; I had no idea he had 'assumed' ownership of it - he had certainly not negotiated this with me! Seeing these cards again reignited my childhood interest in butterflies. I've since acquired a few of these old cards mounted in 'antique' frames and they look splendid on the wall.

It's my ambition now to collect the full set all over again, this time through my own photographic efforts.

Happy memories!

Bryan

Hi and welcome from another newbie. I remember the Brook Bond cards but I was only in my early teens then.
My interest in nature and especially Butterflies grew when my dad gave me his old Zenith camera and I found them an excellent and interesting subject for photography.

My Brooke Bond cards were my greatest 'treasure' as a young lad growing up in the 60s.
I recently acquired a mint set of completed albums - British Butterflies, Butterflies of the world, and Wild Birds of Britain all for £5 on e-bay.
But there was something special about having a thick bundle of the cards held together by a rubber band - always on the look-out for swapsies!
Those were the days..........
Roger Harding

Roger, you got yourself a good haul there for a fiver!

Clancy, Goodness knows how you managed photographing butterflies with a Zenith if it was the same model as mine!

My first camera was a Zenit-E and your post prompted me to re-acquaint myself with it last night. It weighs not much less than a house brick and the shutter mechanism sounds like a collapsing deckchair! Everything on it, including the film advance and rewind, is manual.

I used it for quite a few years and it did at least make you think about your photograph before you took it! (sometimes, too long though!)

Bryan