When butterflies aplenty hatched on the TV set | Brief letters
George Monbiot's memory (Our selective blindness is lethal the living world, 20 December) is indeed bittersweet. As a boy I also recall summertime nettlebeds thickly hanging with the black caterpillars of peacocks and small tortoiseshells. We used to gather them and then watch them pupate and hatch on the top of our television set (a somewhat bulkier item in the late 1960s). I don't recall seeing such butterfly fecundity for more than 40 years.
Mathew Frith
Director of conservation, London Wildlife Trust
" The light here in Kirkcudbright (Letters, 16 December) is also particularly treasured by artists (viz Hornel and the Glasgow Boys). Many of our beaches up here comprise millions of sea shell shards - scallop and cockle in particular - which make the coast glow on a beautiful sunny day.
Keith Langton
Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway