Friday, January 4, 2008

Blessings Friday



We visited the live tropical butterfly exhibit at Tucson Botanical Gardens to enjoy the approximately 100 different species in residence from Australia, Asia, Africa and the tropical Americas.


June Bug (Junius sillius) from North America

My husband insists that I include this photo he took of me.


Blue Clipper (Parthenos sylvia) from Southeast Asia

I took these pictures as practice using my new Christmas camera gift.


Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charithonia) from South and Central Americas

The exhibit is about the size of a master bedroom and is a hot, humid greenhouse full of orchids and other plants to foster healthy butterflies.


Boisduval’s Yellow (Eurema boisduvaliana) from India, Costa Rica, and China

It was a wonderful experience—butterflies of all sizes, shapes, and colors flitted about here and there and some even used me as a perch. It felt like I was being blessed.



There’s also an Emergence Room where you can watch the butterflies emerge from their chrysalides—a magical metamorphosis.


Julia Longwing (Dryas Julia) from the U.S. and South/Central Americas

Butterflies only live about two weeks. This poor butterfly was dying; I felt so bad about it that I had to honor Julia Longwing’s brief life by taking a picture.

18 comments:

Rosie's Whimsy said...

Sounds like a heavenly visit. I live for glimpses of "Spring" on other gals posts. Thanks for the butterflys :-) You make a stunning butterfly, too, BTW!

Vonna Pfeiffer said...

I love it when our Gardens have the butterflies there...they have many species and it's so happy with them flitting to and fro and coming out of their coccoon...beautiful. And it is very sad that they only live 2 weeks, but just think, they have a short life but bring a big punch of beauty and joy to the world of those who behold them :)

Yummers! said...

Your photos are beautiful!!! Isn't it amazing what a new camera can do to sharpen things? Boyd gave me a new camera for Christmas, too. I played with it yesterday and the extra zoom power,etc. take such clear, close, and crisp photos. I'm photographing each Christmas ornament to make an 8x8 album of the photos and the stories behind them. I'll do it digitally so I can print a copy for each of the girls... when I get my right hand back. Do you scrapbook, Junie Moon?
Mother of a whining cat,
Joni

Unknown said...

Those are gorgeous photos. Your husband was right to insist that you include the photo of Junius Sillius!

Anonymous said...

Happy New Year June! You look wonderful as a butterfly!

Lisa said...

Oh, how neat! What a great respite from winter to come here and see the beautiful butterflies today! Great photos! And you do make a lovely butterfly!

Sandy said...

Thank you for your recent visit to Quill Cottage. What a wonderful thing to experience, eing blessed by the butterfly! I love your photos!

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

You are a beautiful butterfly, Julie! Your pictures are wonderful. I'll have to put the Tucson Botanical Gardens on a list of places to visit the next time I am in AZ.

PS: Thanks for your comment on my brand new blog -- it was a nice surprise!

Rosemary said...

Aren't you queen of the butterflys?
Love your pictures. They are so beautiful. It looks like Spring.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Rosemary

a pink-bee said...

June bug-how cute :) I love butterflies :) Am blessed with lots visiting my garden -(not at the moment in this cold though :)
Happy Friday :)
crystalxo

Elaine Thomas said...

wow! this looks so fun!!

Saucy said...

June bug! Heh heh! Priceless! Love those photos!

Kristi said...

How wonderful! I love butterflies. Two years ago when my daughter was 2 1/2, I got some caterpillars and we watched them grow and change. We then let them go. My daughter STILL remembers that!

I always wanted to plant a butterfly garden. Too bad I'm a horrible gardener!

You are so cute in your photo!

Take care and Happy New Year!

calamitykim said...

They have a butterfly room like that at Busch Gardens and it makes me so happy to stand there and have them land on me! I love butterflies and plant butterfly bushes around my house to attract them. Your pictures are great! I am so glad Santa gave you a new camera!

The Wooden Spool said...

What gorgeous butterflys.......you are so fortunate to get to visit them. My brothers lives in Arizona...we'll have to come see him and check this place out. What fun. Fun photo of you peeking out of the butterfly.

Yolanda said...

I love butterflies and this was a wonderful post with lovely photos. Thanks for sharing it.

Lena said...

You have a new camera! Congratulations June, I know you're going to enjoy it!
These photos are all very pretty. I love having a good macro lense now.
We have a butterfly exhibit at our zoo. It's a magical place to visit, and so colorful. I enjoy visiting it, and I've enjoyed your post too.

Take care.

(Angie) Norththreads: said...

Happy New Year Junie moon!!!!