LES PAPILLONS ÉLECTRIQUES

 

A new display at Garden Glow, a flock (is that the right word for butterflies?) moving through the darkness. The reason for the sort of pretentious title is that, for some of us here, everything sounds better in French.                      

DOESN'T THAT ITCH?

A charming sculpture outside the main branch of the St. Louis Public Library. If that's what reading will do to your brain, lay on the volumes.

My time is spread so thin that I mostly listen to audiobooks in the car. Just finished Salman Rushdie's latest novel, Quichotte. Another virtuoso performance, with the real and the imaginary blended like milk and coffee. Now to decide on the next one.

The family is traveling tonight. A stopover in Miami and then, on Thursday, on to what's become our winter home from home. So maybe no post that day unless I find the baggage carousel particularly fascinating tonight.            

Buddha Says...

Eightfold or otherwise.. From the butterfly house. Butterflies don't have a path.               

High Contrast

One of the butterflies hanging out on a leaf. Fun with Photoshop. It's been a long day.                 

Blue Morpho

There is a large butterfly house, something like a three-story greenhouse, in a park in the nether suburbs. I had never been there. We decided to take Madeleine for a visit on Sunday.

I've visited butterfly enclosures before in the US and particularly in Costa Rica but never before have I seen such a density of the winged bugs. It was a warm, sunny day and they were very active. This blue morpho took a break on the reinforced glass wall.        

Butterflies Aren't Free. They Cost $3.50.

The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix is a special place.  I think of the lush Missouri Botanical Garden back home. This one shows you how beautiful plant life can be on a trickle of water. The big draw was the Chihuly glass exhibition. (Our garden had one two or three years ago. Everybody in the U.S. had had one, probably. Dale is making out like a bandit.) But there is something else worth going through on your way onto the grounds.

The DBG has a butterfly house. Not so unusual but always a pleasure. We got into the DBG gratis because most major American gardens have reciprocal admission privileges for members. But the butterflies aren’t free, if anyone is old enough to remember that movie. We had to pay $3.50 each extra, and no senior discount (harrump). It was worth it.