On a day that celebrates rebirth, I feel it only appropriate to share one of the things that always makes me happy: butterflies. I’ve always loved them, but they took on new meaning for me when my mom got her renal cancer diagnosis three years ago.
She’s still fighting on and inspires me every day. It doesn’t hurt that she’s got this weird sense of humor that is awfully familiar …
What really should be the mascot for copy editors, the comma butterfly.
A little wood satyr tries to blend in.
A common buckeye catches some rays.
A dogface butterfly (I’m pretty sure) sups on thistle.
A fiery skipper pays a visit to a butterfly bush.
A purple admiral suns itself on a bed of gravel.
Skippers queue up for nectar from a wild hibiscus.
A swallowtail in the grass in a very rare moment of stillness for this particular butterfly.
A skipper perching atop a thistle.
A red admiral rests on a leaf.
A gray hairstreak alights on spent daisy blooms.
A hackberry emperor preparing for takeoff.
Serenity is a fuzzy belly 
Good morning and Happy Easter to you and your mom…
I am a butterfly person myself but I am particularly partial to the Monarch. That special attachment came into being when I first saw a documentary on their migration. I was mesmerized then by that life journey and I remain so to this day. In fact, I recently read where their primary food source, Milkweed, is in jeopardy along their migration route due to use of herbicides. They were encouraging folks along the migration route to plant Milkweed plots, Arkansas being one of those locations.
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And a Happy Easter to you as well!
I love the Monarch too, but I’m particularly attached to the comma (natch, being an editor), the purple admiral and the hackberry emperor (since they love sweat, I’ve had a few land on me on photo hikes). And I love swallowtails and clouded sulfurs, even though they’re hard to catch on camera at times. 🙂
It kills me when I see native plants disappear, whether in the name of “progress” (c’mon, we can’t pave everything!) or because some people just don’t like them (seriously, people???). I’ve been getting supplies together to plant things to attract butterflies here. I can’t do much, but we know every little bit helps!
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I, too, missed the monarch. I think seeing their winter habitat in Mexico might be somewhere on my bucket list. Walking among clouds of monarchs and seeing trees covered with them has got to be amazing.
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Every once in a while, I have this fantasy of walking in a cloud of butterflies. They never fail to make me feel better.
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Nabokov’s butterflies, anyone?
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