A new day begins and I make ready to join my dear friend to celebrate our births.
As the earth turns and the sun rises, the sky welcomes the warm rays and golden lavender hues.
Eva arrives late morning and we head over towards a unique oasis, passing through the quaint town of Whately. The village is quintessential New England. In the distance stands Mount Sugarloaf.
It is perhaps 19 degrees F. outdoors, as we arrive at the Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory.
We enter into a magical paradise and remain enchanted for hours. This is the first of a series of post sharing this experience. It is most likely 75 degrees inside, with around 4,000 butterflies flying about or resting within the small tropical garden. Blue Morpho, Morpho peleides flit about in their unique way and everywhere you look there are hundreds of colorful butterflies enjoying flowering plants and trees!
The bright cheery colorful flowering plants and trees are most welcome to this winter weary soul.
I am guessing this beauty is Malachite Siproeta stelenes
The light and airy Rice Paper, Idea leuconoe was utterly captivating.
The gardens are well maintained and filled with tropical plants such as this Bromeliad.
Lovely Hibiscus.
Intricately patterned unidentified flutterbys.
A Common Rose Swallowtail, Pachliopta kotzebuea sipping from an unidentified flowering shrub.
Yet another unidentified beauty mirroring the color of the hibiscus anthers.
Here is a hard to capture butterfly - a male Cairns Birdwing, Ornithoptera priamus.
The male and female were flying about in this dance most of the afternoon.
A lucky shot! A handsome Cairns Birdwing with his wings folded.
The patterns differ when seeing one side and the other unless this is a different male all together.
It was so magical and uplifting being in this tropical environment. To see butterflies flying all around you nearly touching your face when you turn to look in another direction. It was so helpful shooting with Eva, for it is great to have another set of eyes to spot the resting butterflies. Thank you Eva and for sharing this with me! I will show more of the creatures that live here next post and show how the caretakers grow their own butterflies. We did not want to leave this world knowing the temperatures outside.
The Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory & Gardens is but one half hour away from Flower Hill Farm... a wondrous oasis in this cold winter wonderland. We later had lunch at the Montague Bookmill above a waterfall and then driving home along a quaint country road stop to admire this lovely landscape. This is my offering for Blooming Friday and Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Visit Katarina's Roses and Stuff and Carol's May Dreams Gardens to see more participants from around the world.
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