Zooming – November 2023

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November 2023 was a month of contrasts…an increase in day trips (to the Springfield Botanical Garden and Butterfly Palace in Branson) and then the more confined views while a parent was in the hospital/recovering at home. Photography is something I enjoy in almost every circumstance. I am either trying to capture a moment or create an artistic composition. And the zoom feature on my cameras are almost always used!

Branson’s Butterfly Palace

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Last week, my husband and I visited the Butterfly Palace in Branson MO – less than an hour from where we live. My daughter had visited several days before and recommended it.

There were butterfly sculptures and stakes along the short walk to the building.

We walked around the Living Rainforest Science Center first…then the Emerald Forest Mirror Maze. The maze was a bit more challenging than we anticipated…more fun too. But the big draw is, of course, the Butterfly Aviary.

Visitors are given a vial with a ‘flower’ on top that attracts butterflies. They sip the liquid (diluted orange Gatorade) while people walk around the aviary.

The paper kites seem to settle in on the ‘flowers’ and stay for the duration! It was very easy to take close pictures of them with my phone (one handed since the vial was in the other one!). My husband had more butterflies on his flower than I did on mine.

The butterflies in the exhibit were the same species as I’d seen previously at Brookside Gardens’ Wings of Fancy in Maryland. There were some butterflies with iridescent blue wings (blue morphos?) but I wasn’t able to photograph them. I like the malachite butterflies a lot but, in this exhibit, the paper kites were the stars on the day we visited. There were fruit trays and sponges in sugar water for the butterflies….very few blooming plants. The paths were too narrow to allow for photography with other than phones…but many of the butterflies were stationery enough to get close with the phone!

There were some small rainforest birds that stayed in the trees around where their food was placed. They were as iridescent as some of the butterflies.

Outside the aviary the butterfly theme continued everywhere – chairs, artwork, on the walls. The butterfly chairs are surprisingly comfortable; I sat in one until the 3D movie about Monarch Butterflies opened for the next showing.

The store is large and had a good selection. I was surprised to find a new, sturdier stand for my large glass birdbath (I didn’t use it last summer because I was too worried that the stand was not stable enough)!