59 Candles, 59 Things – Part Nine

Fourteenth thing: Is there anything quite like a succulent, juicy, Florida grapefruit?  One of the things I’ll miss about having Mom in Florida is that she had an uncanny knack for finding the most spectacular sweet-tart grapefruits, stocked in just before I’d arrive for a visit – one per each day of my stay (and more if I’d asked).  Now that she lives in Michigan, I may have to call upon her skills at our local grocer’s produce stand and see if she can find anything like this gem.

Fifteenth thing: While butterflies are known as my Mom’s “thing” in our family, they make me happy as well.  In May 2014 while staying in our little cabin in the woods bordering the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we experienced something neither Spence nor I had ever seen. As we drove through the park from Wears Valley Tennessee to Cherokee North Carolina there was either a hatching or a migration of pale yellow butterflies. Driving for 90 minutes, every time there was a clearing in the trees, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands, of them. Considering that we’ve been coming here for years, this was a first.  The sheer number of them for such a prolonged distance was at first almost startling, then we were just in awe. After a few hours in Cherokee, we made the return trip and experienced the same thing. I can’t tell you what type of butterfly this was and I was unable to take a picture as it was perpetual motion (both the butterflies and our car).  But it was something neither Spence and I will forget.

That said, I’ve also been witness to Morpho Butterflies while in Costa Rica.  Not once but on multiple trips. I know people who’ve lived there for years and never saw one. They are very large as butterflies go and fly/flap slowly.  With wings open they are a brilliant, royal blue – like a flying, iridescent hologram.

With wings folded up, they look like a large moth, rather unremarkable.

Photos of Morpho Butterflies courtesy of an Internet Search

In my travels, I’m always intrigued to see if I can get butterfly pictures that aren’t  blurred by motion and have been successful as you will see below.  These images have been taken over time in my travels and make me happy.

Jerome, Arizona

In Elk Rapids Michigan

Elk Rapids Michigan

In Elk Rapids Michigan

In Townsend Tenessee

Cades Cove, Tennessee

Cades Cove, Tennessee

In Savannah Georgia

In Savannah Georgia

In Savannah Georgia

In Savannah Georgia

In Savannah Georgia