Waves and butterflies
I'm probably too sleepy to blog about it coherently, but today we saw an amazing thing. In the morning, Rachel and I went apple-picking - it was a perfect day, bright blue skies and warm sun and breezes - and on the way back, I saw that I had a voicemail from my mother telling me that the Monarch butterflies were gathering at the state park where my dad works. It's a stop on their migration, but we had never been able to catch them and I'm not sure they've been there for a couple of years.
When we got to the park, we saw a couple of butterflies. More than you'd usually see in one place, but not flocks. It was super windy down by the beach where we were, so I'm not surprised XD We brought the hoops and hoop-danced a bit on the beach, which was lovely. Rachel went out into the water up to her knees (I'd forgotten my shorts) and then enticed me in too. I rolled my cuffs up and went out to my ankles. We were picking up our stuff back on the beach and Rachel was telling me about how remarkably clear the water was out where she was, and she knew I'd regret it if I didn't get to see it. So we went out about to our knees, and it was like rippled glass, so perfectly clear. But it was wavy, and we got soaked to our underwear XD XD XD
As we were coming up off the beach, we saw my dad and uncle! And then my mum came, because she wanted to see the butterflies too. It was so windy by now that there were no butterflies at all, but we went wandering around in our wet pants. We walked down a little wooded path where Monarchs flitted all around, flying above the low trees. Then we noticed a tiny trail up through the woods. I jogged up it first to see if it went anywhere, and I saw more and more Monarchs. Rachel and my mother followed, and at the top, there was a clearing with one of the park's pavilions. There were lots more butterflies up there - dozens and dozens - on goldenrod and bushes. We admired them for a while and then started down past the pavilion to see if there were any more...
And there was this big tree. Several trees, actually. The Monarchs were on them as thick as leaves.
There had to be thousands. They were flitting around and resting on the branches, most of them with folded wings, clinging to every available space. They didn't seem at all perturbed by people; we walked slowly up to the tree and sometimes, if we stepped on a crunchy leaf or something, a bunch of them would explode into the air and float around before settling back down again. The air was filled with them, and they were the most perfect orange against the blue of the sky.
I feel strongly about Monarch butterflies. I saw them everywhere when I first started looking into paganism as my spiritual path (it was around this time of year in 2007). To get to see so many of them all in one place was an experience I'll never forget.
(On the way home, our car broke down -_-;; Luckily we were right near the road where I grew up, so we pulled into my childhood park and called AAA. We had them tow it and my mum was luckily not all the way to her house yet, and she came to the garage and picked us up. She's letting us borrow her car <3 So the "Let's jump in the water, it's only a forty-minute ride home!" decision turned into about five hours with wet clothes XD Oh well, it was more than worth it!)
When we got to the park, we saw a couple of butterflies. More than you'd usually see in one place, but not flocks. It was super windy down by the beach where we were, so I'm not surprised XD We brought the hoops and hoop-danced a bit on the beach, which was lovely. Rachel went out into the water up to her knees (I'd forgotten my shorts) and then enticed me in too. I rolled my cuffs up and went out to my ankles. We were picking up our stuff back on the beach and Rachel was telling me about how remarkably clear the water was out where she was, and she knew I'd regret it if I didn't get to see it. So we went out about to our knees, and it was like rippled glass, so perfectly clear. But it was wavy, and we got soaked to our underwear XD XD XD
As we were coming up off the beach, we saw my dad and uncle! And then my mum came, because she wanted to see the butterflies too. It was so windy by now that there were no butterflies at all, but we went wandering around in our wet pants. We walked down a little wooded path where Monarchs flitted all around, flying above the low trees. Then we noticed a tiny trail up through the woods. I jogged up it first to see if it went anywhere, and I saw more and more Monarchs. Rachel and my mother followed, and at the top, there was a clearing with one of the park's pavilions. There were lots more butterflies up there - dozens and dozens - on goldenrod and bushes. We admired them for a while and then started down past the pavilion to see if there were any more...
And there was this big tree. Several trees, actually. The Monarchs were on them as thick as leaves.
There had to be thousands. They were flitting around and resting on the branches, most of them with folded wings, clinging to every available space. They didn't seem at all perturbed by people; we walked slowly up to the tree and sometimes, if we stepped on a crunchy leaf or something, a bunch of them would explode into the air and float around before settling back down again. The air was filled with them, and they were the most perfect orange against the blue of the sky.
I feel strongly about Monarch butterflies. I saw them everywhere when I first started looking into paganism as my spiritual path (it was around this time of year in 2007). To get to see so many of them all in one place was an experience I'll never forget.
(On the way home, our car broke down -_-;; Luckily we were right near the road where I grew up, so we pulled into my childhood park and called AAA. We had them tow it and my mum was luckily not all the way to her house yet, and she came to the garage and picked us up. She's letting us borrow her car <3 So the "Let's jump in the water, it's only a forty-minute ride home!" decision turned into about five hours with wet clothes XD Oh well, it was more than worth it!)