But nooooo...I always go when it's HOT.
Every year, the Conservatory hosts some butterflies from around the world and this year it's Butterflies of India. (the amount of butterflies from different countries is usually pretty small...I think they just want to dress up the building with a "theme"...and this is the only time you have to pay to see any part of the Conservatory, so they can dress it up as much as they like.)
They breed and raise the butterflies in a nursery then release them into the atrium, which is decorated according to the year's theme.
The more aggressive or "potentially dangerous if released" butterflies are kept in a mesh cage, while the others are free-flying. And it's hot and humid inside the Atrium. Makes the butterflies happy and the people moist. Well, at least all that sweat makes us irresistible to the butterflies.
My favorite (and the hardest to get onto your fingers) is the Blue Morpho. A native of South America, these things are massive as far as butterflies go. They look like...birds.
My ID sheet is way out in the car and I don't feel like getting up to get it.
(the kids' first official day of summer break wore me out....so sue me.)
Soak in the bright, colorful goodness of butterflies:
Okay. I know this one...Common Buckeye. (No. Not THAT buckeye.)
One of the 'dangerous' butterflies...
This thing was huge. Bigger than my hand. Almost as big as both my hands put together.
(everyone of those 'eyes' is a butterfly)
The Atrium decorated with the Indian theme
Tributes to Ganhdi.....
Shiva....
...and Ganesh.
It's not hard to get the butterflies to sit on your fingers. These are captive-bred butterflies, genetically inferior and also, I bet, battered and exhausted from the show.
But the kids think I'm the Butterfly Whisperer anyway. I would reach into the flowers, bring out a butterfly and then entice the butterfly to walk onto their fingers.
Makes for happy bug girls.
