Saturday, December 29, 2018

Saturday, December 29, 2018


Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. Mattie came with us to Peter's holiday office party. Mattie had a great time and everyone got a kick out of him. It appears that Mattie was posing for a picture with Santa. But Santa is actually a man named Steven, who looks just like the jolly fellow from the North Pole. For years, we all got a chuckle looking at this photo. 









Quote of the day: With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

We visited Butterfly World today. This is a park we used to take Mattie to each time we went to Fort Lauderdale. It opened in 1988, and is the largest butterfly park in the world, and the first park of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The facility houses around 20,000 live butterflies.

After retiring from a career as electrical engineer, Ronald Boender started raising butterflies and their food plants in his home in Florida. In 1984 he established MetaScience to help supply farmed butterflies to zoos and universities. After having visited England in 1985, where he met Clive Farrell (founder and owner of the London Butterfly House), he decided to create his own facility in Florida. Boender and Ferrell entered into partnership and started planning the facility, which was to be a public attraction, but also a research facility and a butterfly farm.

This is the elusive Blue Morpho butterfly. When I tell you this butterfly doesn't sit still for a minute, I am not kidding! I caught him in mid-flutter!

Aren't they stunning!

To me this makes the perfect Christmas card! A butterfly sitting on a poinsettia bush! The beauty of Butterfly World is not just the butterflies, which are simply incredible, but the breath-taking vegetation, plantings, and classical music they pipe into the Paradise Adventure Aviary. 

The color contracts are eye catching and what you can't see from my photos are the hundreds of butterflies flying all around you as you walk along the pathways of the aviary. 

It's hard to believe this butterfly is for real!

This is the first year I remember seeing sugar water feeders around the aviary. This water attracted clumps of butterflies!

There were many children all around us today. It is the perfect venue for children, to stimulate their curiosity and need for hands on learning. Of course, seeing the children reminds me of our countless visits to this garden with Mattie. 

Can you get the feeling for the number of butterflies flying around?

This is the outside of a Blue Morpho butterfly. Rather ironic no? Brown on the outside and stunningly blue on the inside. 

A Blue Morpho butterfly flying by one of the charming benches in the aviary. There are quotes on every bench. This one says, "We will always have hope in our hearts."

Some of the amazing flowers all around us. What I did not effectively capture were all the butterflies within these plantings. 

The Wings of the World Secret Garden has one of the largest collections of flowering Passion Flower vines in the world. There are many varieties of these flowers. This is one type. 

Another Passion Flower. 

This is hard to see, but it is a burgundy colored passion flower. It is called a passion flower because different parts of the flower symbolize the death of Christ. For example, the five sepals and five petals of the flower represent Jesus' disciples. 

The Jewels of the Sky Aviary is where hummingbirds and other birds can be seen. Just like with the butterfly aviary, in this aviary, birds are flying lose. So it is fascinating to walk in and among them. 

Two cuties! 

We fly home tomorrow. I wish I could say I was feeling better, but I am still congested and can't hear much out of my ears. I am quite sure flying will do me in completely tomorrow. It is hard to imagine returning to gray and cold weather, while people in Florida have access to sunshine, greenery, flowers, and the ocean.