A (Very) Short Tropical Getaway

 

Outside, bright sunshine and chilly wind vied for supremacy. I stood in the line up to enter Butterfly Gardens with three grands and shivered without my jacket. I knew that tropical temperatures awaited me. A fluffy Yellow Canary welcomed us into the humidity. I felt my hair responding immediately - curl and frizz ensued as expected as the jungle ambiance surrounded me.

Butterflies are everywhere in this miniature paradise, landing on heads and brightly coloured clothing. Butterfly Garden's website has a great guide to the names of the butterflies. I thought of Barbara from Coastal Ripples blog because of her interest and knowledge of butterflies. 

Do you find that certain sights remind you of blogging friends?

Blue and gold macaws kept careful watch from their perches, or splashed in bowls of water. Other parrots flew around, made cheerful conversation, and entertained us well. 

The pink flamingo looked so elegant  beside the koi pond and its great posture had me straightening my back. 

I was reminded of the first time I saw a Blue Morpho in the wild. Seven months pregnant with our son (middle child), I went on a jungle hike in Ecuador that involved descending into a deep canyon via a steep trail with a rope. Tim and our guide took good care of me and I managed to go up and down without incident. 

At the bottom of the small deep canyon, a waterfall splashed into a small pool before running away in a stream of clear cool water. Light filtered through tall trees and a fine mist filled the air. Several Blue Morphos flitted about as we admired this secret place. With closed wings these creatures camouflage well (they are the brown ones with many "eyes" in the lower left corner of the collage above), but when they fly, oh the beauty of their iridescent blue wings. 

This memory came to mind as I watched Blue Morphos in the gardens this week. It's difficult to capture them in flight and as soon as they stop, the wings close, hiding their blue beauty. I managed to capture a hint of the blue which does not compare to actually seeing them. 

It's far too cold for butterflies outside of the sanctuary just now, but I've seen a few fat bumblebees busy about the early blooms which is an encouraging sight. What are the sights in your world these days?

Rambling on a Friday

I visited Butterfly World with my daughter and granddaughter last week. I caught Shadow, the blue macaw, trying to nap, his head resting on one branch, his body suspended, and his feet and tail resting on another branch. As he relaxed, I watched his feathers slowly fold together, dropping one at a time before his eyes closed. Every so often he would jerk, as one does in such an uncomfortable sleeping position. I wanted to go straighten him out and tuck him in properly.

He didn't seem to mind the discomfort and woke up looking quite perky. "Ah, that's better," he says, standing once again on his perch.

In my kitchen a modest (some call it more than modest) collection of cookbooks collected over the years sits on shelves. Lately, I've been perusing some of the older ones. I find it interesting the way food trends come and go. What drives food trends? I know that we eat differently than we used to. I make fewer casseroles and less starchy foods. This week I made lasagna for the first time in several years, and very delicious it was. 

We had company last weekend and I wanted something simple for dessert. In the 70s and 80s a group of Canadian Women published a series of cookbooks whose titles are based on the game of bridge. The Best of Bridge is the first one and others that followed included Grand Slam, That's Trump and other bridge-related names. I've used many recipes from these books over the years. 

For Saturday dinner I made a Sensational Lemon Roll - a sponge cake filled with a tart lemon and whipped cream filling. Our strawberry plants are loaded with berries and so I decorated the top with a few, along with some sprigs of mint. Our guests enjoyed it, and then we enjoyed the leftovers during the week. 

I wish you could see the roses in my garden. They began blooming in earnest. Winchester Cathedral, above, is fragrantly ruffled. See the white spider making herself at home there? I flicked away part of her dinner - a fly she'd caught and brought home. 

It tickles my fancy to think that some distant relative of this rose also blooms in the Queen's Rose Garden at Sudeley Castle near Winchcombe where we spent some time last summer. 

More of Winchester Cathedral getting ready to bloom. 

I've been reading the Rhys Bowen Royal Spyness mysteries. I've read most of them now, but out of order, and I hadn't read the first one. That's my current book. They are light and full of fun details about life in England during the 1930s.

I immortalized this unwelcome, but bright and valiant, buttercup with a photo before yanking it out. We have several neighbours who do not care for their gardens very well and as a result, buttercups are rampant. I dig them out when I see them, but this one bloomed up against the fence, so I'm giving it its time to shine.

With all the turmoil in the world, St. Paul's words keep coming to mind. These days, I'm thinking about delightful things like pretty pink poppies, fragrant roses, the scent of freshly cut grass, cool air rushing over my face through the wide open window at night, blue and white china, how my grandchildren make me laugh, and a host of other lovely things. 

How are you handling the doom and gloom of the world these days? What's delightful in your world?