Do you often find yourself taking pictures of the sky and skylines? Then I guess you are someone who takes the weather with you everywhere you go.

Watching the clouds go by at the top of London's Primrose Hill on a sunny afternoon in October

Even if you don't and just inadvertently snapped a brilliant photograph of 'the weather', there's a new competition to enter.

Your photo must be taken in the UK to qualify for the OPAL Weather Photo Competition and you can upload as many as you want. The closing date is 3 May 2011. The winner will receive £100 of Amazon vouchers, a framed photo mosaic of your winning picture and a subscription to theWeather magazine.

One hour later, further down Primrose Hill, the clouds started to gather quickly

The competition is looking for pictures from all budding photogtaphers of interesting weather scenes, or photos that show how we enjoy or are affected by the weather.

Upload your photos to the Weather Photo Competition on the OPAL website

If I could enter the competition - which I can't because OPAL is affiliated to the Museum - I might think about submiting these pictures (above and below) that I took last October on Primrose Hill in North London.

Two hours later, at the bottom of Primrose Hill, the rain came and one rainbow, then two.

It was a gorgeous sunny, blue-skied autumn afternoon and we headed up Primrose hill to be wowed by the panoromic views of the city skyline framed with big white scudding clouds (pictured above). But staying true to our typical changeable British weather tradition, about two hours later, the sky darkened and the rain bucketed down. As we rushed to the bottom of the hill for cover, the rain stopped suddenly and a rainbow appeared, then another. I'd never seen a double rainbow before in the flesh and it was quite something. I just managed to catch the second one on camera before it vanished.

The competition launches in Climate Week which the Museum took part in all this week along with lots of other organisations across the country. There are events over the weekend, so see what's on. It's part of the OPAL Climate Survey which is currently running with the Met Office to investigate the ways in which we affect the climate.

Read the news story about the Weather Photo Competition

Find out more about climate change on our website

OPAL is a partnership initiative celebrating biodiversity, environmental quality and people’s engagement with nature.

It seems like only a week ago that the front lawn outside the Museum was a mudbath. But now as I write, thanks to sunny dry spells, we have the roof on the butterfly house frame. And work is firmly underway for its metamorphosis into a fully-foliaged and delightfully decorated home for the first live butterflies arriving at the end of the month.

Our Sensational Butterflies exhibition opens to the public on 12 April and tickets are on sale now.

Julia butterfly, Dryas iulia, one of the unusual species coming to Sensational Butterflies. These bright orange beauties have been spotted drinking tears from caiman eyes in Brazil. They are among a few butterflies in the world to do this.

I asked Rob, who's supervising the building work, how it's going: 'The main challenge is the weather – we basically have to turn a muddy field into an exhibition that will take 1000s of people walking over its floor surface, without it turning back into a muddy field again! It’s always a challenge, and every year we tinker with our ideas. The whole exhibition takes 4 to 5 weeks to build. Being a  tropical environment inside the house means that its humid, and the flowers and plants in there need loads of watering every day, which is really the worst thing you can do to a floor which was recently wet mud.'

Rob also told me that the butterfly house is actually an agricultural building, the same farmers use to grow crops of tomatoes or flowers. But the material it’s made from is a type of plastic that’s very flame-resistant, this is why it looks different from a normal agricultural building, which would just be covered in polythene.

The race is on: Turning a muddy field into a beautiful butterfly house and garden must be done in 4 to 5 weeks

It's the fourth year running for the Museum's ever-popular outdoor summer exhibition and this time it's all about the sensory world of butterflies. We'll get to find out what it's like actually being a butterfly and experience things from their perspective as we explore five different sensory zones in the butterfly house.

There will be lots of fun things to do indoors - we have no outside play park this year - like touching a real cocoon, crawling through a chrysalis, and even sniffing your way around tropical plants. New additions to the house include the intriguing-sounding butterfly puddle display and the chrysalis crawl-through tunnel.

The outdoor garden will have a lot to live up to on last year - it was the envy of the everyone here at the Museum by mid-summer - and will again bustle with window boxes, garden plants and tips for attracting butterflies.

So to the beauties of the show. On 30 March, about 600 live sensational butterflies will be released in their new home for the exhibition's opening, along with 1200 pupae. Exciting species to watch out for in the house will be the noisy wing-snapping Cracker butterfly (below right), the Julia butterfly (above) which has been seen drinking tears from caiman eyes in South America, and massive Atlas moths (below left).

Species to look out for at Sensational Butterflies

Left: Is it a fern? Is it a spider? Nope, it's the Atlas moth, the largest moth species in the world.  Image Neil Gale, Magic of Butterflies House

Right: What's the noisiest butterfly in the world? Probably the Cracker butterfly, Hamadryas feronia. You might hear some snapping their wings at potential predators on your visit.

Select the images to enlarge.

There was a moment on Monday night, at the author's book launch event here, when I actually expected a Neanderthal to walk onto the stage and join novelist Jean M Auel and Museum scientist Chris Stringer in their conversation about prehistoric life and the Earth's Children books.

Both modern humans entertained us for an hour chatting about the wonders of cave art and craft, Neanderthal veggies, the interbreeding of Neanderthals and early humans, and the possiblity of cloning Neanderthals in the future.

Left: Novelist Jean M Auel and Museum palaeoanthropologist Chris Stringer admire a Venus statuette as an example of early cave art at the author's book launch event on 28 February in the Museum's Flett Theatre. Right, Jean compares a Neanderthal skull with an early human one. The Land of Painted Caves is out on 29 March.

The age-defying, 75-year-old American novelist arrived with several family members and various literary and publishing aides, to find a packed Flett Theatre in the Museum. Chris Stringer brought some rare, prehistoric objects and remains. The event marked a step closer to the long-awaited release of Jean’s sixth and final book, The Land of Painted Caves, in her bestselling Earth’s Children series. The series follows the epic adventures of Ayla, an early modern human girl adopted by Neanderthals, growing up and adapting in Ice Age Europe.

Stepping back about 30,000 years, it was fascinating to hear the two speakers talk about the similarities and differences between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons (early modern humans) who populate Jean’s books. And to discover the comparative views of a bestselling novelist and renowned palaeoanthropologist on the advances in our understanding of these species. The conversation wasn't so much fact versus fiction, more fact enriching fiction.

It was clear that Chris and Jean were equally intrigued by the Neanderthal race. And I discovered how close we all really are when Chris pointed out that recent research shows that most of us in the audience would have about two and half per cent Neanderthal DNA in our genes.

Jean told us how she researches her books, visiting caves and conferences, learning how to make snow fires and stone tools, and even treat deer buckskins with brains! Chris drew attention to the historic detail in her books of animals, objects and the Ice Age landscape.

So what was the inspiration for the Earth’s Children epic? ‘It started out as a short story. But I quickly found I only “do long”,’ joked Jean. ‘What if we were sharing this world with another kind of human? That was my original thought, which sparked the idea.’

The author didn’t give away much about the content of The Land of Painted Caves, except to mention that all but one of the caves in the final book are based on real caves, many of these she has visited. ‘Life got in the way,’ was her answer to the questions of why the long gap since her last book and why the series has taken 30 years to complete.

We were enlightened further when the speakers answered questions from fans, like, ‘Where did Ayla’s name come from?’ ‘Is Ayla a feminist character?’ 'What inspired the memories and sign language of the Neanderthals in your story? ‘How did you get your first book published?’ 'Is it true Neanderthals had rickets?’ And ‘What is the scientific evidence of interbreeding between humans and other species?’

But you’ll have to wait to watch the film of the event to find out some of the answers. We will have a short video clip on our website soon. And there will be more film coverage on the publisher's website. Our event was followed by an author's signing session (pictured above).

The Land of Painted Caves is published on 29 March by Hodder & Stoughton. Their Jean M Auel website has all the details.

You can get a limited edition of the new book featuring an AR (augmented reality) Ayla showing what she might have looked like. Some of Jean’s fans helped decide on this here earlier on in the author's visit to the Museum.

In the meantime get to know Neanderthal man more closely in our latest Neanderthal factfile animation (left) and if you have a webcam you can have an augmented reality Neanderthal in your home.

Come and find out more from Chris Stringer at our free talk on 11 March at 14.30: Are we Neanderthals?

Read my earlier blog about the Jean M Auel in Conversation event

Find out more about human evolution and the ancient human occupation of Britain

See a 14,700-year-old human skull cup replica on display at the Musem

Compare 3D hominid skulls in our online interactive

Enjoy more pictures from the event. Select them to enlarge

Jean Auel meets fans here to help choose the augmented reality image of her books' heroine, Ayla

Sharon Ament, the Museum's Public Engagement Group director intoduces Jean Auel and Chris Stringer in the Flett Theatre

A captivated audience in the packed Flett Theatre

Chris Stringer shows a rare, ritualistic 14,700-year-old human skull-cup replica, now on public display here

The author gets ready to sign books for her fans

A happy fan gets the first book, The Clan of the Cave Bear, signed