Butterflies – Valerie's Voice

Spring Lake Park Reserve

The other day we rode a new-to-us bike trail, beginning at the west end of the Spring Lake Park Reserve, near Hastings.

A monarch butterfly on butterfly weed. How appropriate.

This beautiful trail meanders along with a prairie on one side (complete with bison), and the Mississippi River on the other. It was hilly, but fun… and is now one of my new favorite trails.

The prairie wild flowers were in full bloom, bountiful, and showing off. That was a perk, as was having the Mississippi River, on the other side of the trail.

But the biggest bonus, and surprise, was at the trailhead where we planned to eat our picnic lunch. There is a bison paddock there where eight bison were brought here to live in a very large, penned-in area.

Mother and babe…maybe…all adults together care for the young.

On this day, we were fortunate to see all eight of them, plus four calves, up close sitting right in front of us as we ate our lunch. Locals told us it was unusual to see them so close.

The Bison are being reintroduced to this area where they once lived. They seem to draw a lot of interest. We were told when the project started last fall, they acquired eight females, and four of them were pregnant. Several signs offered different interesting facts about bison.

Standing, lying down, walking around…the bison were active.

The bison were all lying down when we first saw them. And then they would get up and move around. They were fun to watch. A couple hours later when we got back from our bike ride, all twelve were gone, and nowhere to be seen.

The space where they are corralled is a vast prairie land where they can roam, and are often hidden from view. The beginning mile, or so, of the bike trail is along this paddock.

Cone flowers, black-eyed susans, fleabane…

Seeing the bison, and the river, and the wildflowers, created a great impression for our first ride on this trail. The temperatures had cooled off too, with low dew points. It was awesome.

Prairie Clover, with a beautiful butterfly I could not identify.

I took time on our way back to stop and take pictures of the gorgeous flowers. Often there were butterflies or bees on the flowers.

There were so many different species, and colors, shapes and sizes. I decided to take only a few pictures since I had to keep getting on and off my bike. 😉

A metal Bison sculpture seen along the bike trail. The yard was full of metal art. The artist was identified as Dale Lewis.

This trail is one we will ride again and again, I’m sure. It will be interesting to see how often we see the bison herd, and to see how the landscape changes throughout the seasons.

Other bison seen along the trail… Metal sculptures: Dale Lewis

The bison were all gathered in this one corner of the paddock, near the trailhead.

The Butterfly Cake

Children’s excitement is fun to experience. Our oldest granddaughter turned five in October. Since we missed her birthday party in Colorado, we decided to have a party when she and her brother came to stay with us for a few days in November. Her Minnesota cousin, aunt and uncle would help celebrate too. She was so excited.

I planned a butterfly theme since Zoey and I went to a butterfly garden last summer. I found butterfly plates, napkins and hanging decorations. I found pink butterfly wings, with a bit of glitter, for Zoey to wear. I borrowed a vintage cookbook with cake patterns from a friend, and found directions to bake and shape a butterfly cake.

Although the butterfly cake ended up with a broken, but mended, wing you couldn’t tell after it was frosted.

The grandkids had fun helping me enhance the cake with sugar, sprinkles and candy. I think a good time was had by all.

Memorable Hike – Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming 1999

Continuing my series on memorable hikes…

Our family took many road trips across country when the boys were younger, mostly to national parks, and we hiked a lot.

A picture – of a photo – of my three guys in the Tetons (from our 1999 photo album).

One memorable hike was in Grand Teton National Park. What made this hike memorable were the butterflies. I find it interesting that I mentioned seeing beautiful butterflies on our hike in Brazil, but on this hike in the Tetons the butterflies were my companions.

One morning we started hiking together along a park trail and after hiking 4.5 miles we came to a fork in the road. For the first time ever, while hiking with my family, I decided to turn around and hike back alone while my three guys continued walking to a mountain lake. This was the first and only time I remember turning around while hiking and I don’t remember why. I do remember feeling safe, knowing it was an established park trail, and that I had enough water.

What made this hike memorable were the butterflies. While I walked alone along the path they fluttered along the side of me all the way back. I couldn’t believe it…they were my escorts, my guardian angels. I remembered it as one butterfly but my journal reminded me there were several butterflies.

My journal also reminded me that the guys continued another 2.7 miles to the mountain lake, Lake Solitude. It was there they turned around and hiked back to the ferry landing. My husband hopped on the ferry, but our two sons decided to continue hiking all the way back to the trailhead for an additional 2.5 miles which made their total 17 miles for that day.

I often think about this story and my butterfly companions. It makes me smile.

Psalm 121: 1-2

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Memorable Hikes – Brazil 2004

Hiking is a favorite hobby of mine and my husband. We have gone on hundreds of hikes over the years…it is what we like to do, at home and on vacation, so I thought it would be fun to write a series about some memorable hikes. It’s tough to rate them as favorites so I’ll stick with “memorable” and not rank them in any kind of order. I keep a vacation journal so I have notes on most of our hikes (some more detailed than others I’ve discovered). Here is the first in my series of memorable hikes that I will post weekly, for awhile anyway.

Several years ago our son was a Rotary exchange student in Florianopolis, an island off the southern coast of Brazil. It is a gorgeous island and known for it’s beautiful beaches along the Atlantic Ocean. He lived there one year and had a great experience. His host families were wonderful and genuinely cared for him. It was a delight to meet them when our family went to visit after he had been living in Brazil for seven months.

His first host family (mom, dad and one son – their other son was on Rotary exchange in the US) took our family on a hike along Lagoa da Conceição, a large lagoon on the island of Florianopolis. The island itself is beautiful…and to hike along the inland lake was a special treat.

It was a hot day. The trail was semi-rough and we hiked for about an hour and a half. I saw many butterflies along the trail, including a black and purple one. I had already spotted several butterflies on this trip to Brazil, including the beautiful, iridescence blue ones and a lime-green one.

What I remember most about this hike was the destination… as we neared the end we walked down toward the lake and there on the beach were some shade trees, a swing set, a few chickens running around and children playing in the sand. There was a quaint open-air café on the sandy shores of Lagoa da Conceição. It was a great spot to stop, rest, cool off, swing and get something cold to drink, and food to eat. We were the only customers at the café. It was family- owned and run. We found a wonderful place to sit at a table under the trees near the water.

We ordered a beer; it tasted so good because the beer was so cold and the air was so hot, and so were we from hiking in the heat. Next the appetizers started coming – shrimp, squid, and other kinds of fish – all delicious. Then we ordered main dishes for everyone to share family-style. We spent over two hours eating and enjoying our time together in this lovely setting.

And then, to our surprise and delight, they had ordered a boat taxi to bring us back to the trail-head. Instead of hiking back we had a pleasant, relaxing boat ride on the beautiful lake, Lagoa da Conceição.

It was a lovely day and memorable hike with wonderful friends.

Neighborhood Butterfly Garden

I stopped in at my neighbor’s garage sale. They have a six-year old granddaughter so I thought maybe there would be some things of interest to me. But first I came upon their small garden along their driveway. Standing tall was another beautiful hibiscus blooming bright pink alongside sedum in full bloom, with a metal sculpture in the middle of it all.

On that metal sculpture was a little, lime-green tree frog, and fluttering all around the sedum were Painted Lady butterflies. My neighbor said it was like having their own butterfly garden – there were dozens of butterflies swarming around – and they have been for several days. At times a few would land on his finger.

Franklin Park Conservatory Butterfly Garden, Columbus OH

I’ve been to several indoor butterfly gardens. It’s a fun experience to walk through hanging plastic strips into a room where several species of butterflies are happily flitting around you, some landing close by or, on your body. What a great idea for a botanical garden or arboretum to create the space for butterflies and then invite the public to see and experience the wonderful creatures.

And mentioning butterflies…last year a friend found a chrysalis on his house and I took a photo of it. I was so amazed to see it up close and then to see the Monarch wings through the chrysalis. Click here to see a two minute YouTube video of a Monarch emerging from its chrysalis. The whole process of their transformation is amazing.

There are so many interesting facts about monarch butterflies…as there is for all creatures. Nature is absolutely fascinating and sometimes unfathomable.

And the Lord God made them all.