Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Flight of the Monarch

By SKEETER

The Saint and I celebrated Valentines all weekend long with beautiful weather. We played in our Georgia Garden together on Saturday. We transplanted some Butterfly Bushes from the Butterfly Island to give the Bald Cypress a bit more room to grow. Thus, expanding the Island a bit.
On Sunday, we drove north of Atlanta to check out the Home and Garden Show. The show was a total bust! More business cards handed out then anything. We did see a few new items but over all, we were totally disappointed with the show.

The fun thing was having breakfast at one of Guy Fieri of Food Network fame picks. This pick came from the show Diners, Drive-In's and Dives or Triple D as we call it. The Silver Skillet is a landmark breakfast spot in Atlanta and has been featured in many movies, magazines and TV programs. Click the link to check out this hot spot from the 1950's. We got a kick out of walking through the kitchen to use the restroom. We kind of wanted to flip an egg on our route to tinkle. Ha ha. The Lemon Ice Box pie was as good as my Grandmothers! It melted in our mouths. Click HERE to see how it is made...

We tried to check out Gallery 63 Antiques and Auctions but with it being a new show on TVs Discovery Channel, well, lets just say, the line to get in was longer then we were willing to endure. We goofed around a bit here and there and ended our day at Buca di Beppo indulging in Pasta. Yum... On Valentines I kidnapped the Saint from work and took him to lunch. Once home, I surprised him with this gooey Chocolate, Vanilla, Nutty treat I made. Wow, it was rich and oh so good....
Backing up to October of last year, we find ourselves on our last boating trip of the year. I kept noticing butterflies floating by us as we traveled the waters.Upon a closer look, I realized they were Monarch butterflies! Putting two and two together, so to speak, we decided they were on their migration!

Do you know how difficult it is to capture a fluttering Monarch in the air while on the wavy waters? Well let me tell you. Three people had cameras in hand and the Saint was being yelled at by me to go right, go left, speed up, slow down, Come on Saint keep up darn it! He was zig zagging right and left and going in circles. We were all laughing and cursing at the same time. LOL The Saint was afraid that a Ranger would pull us over for being drunk on the water. (Note, Impossible as we do not drink booze on our boat) I am sure that anyone watching us from the shoreline were wondering what in the heck we were doing.... They were not flying in any pattern so the speak. Some were flying just above the water, some flying high in the sky, some diving towards the water, some floating along with the breeze and some flapping their wings like mad. They would zip by us so quickly that it was a challenge to capture them on film. I must have snapped 50 pictures and taken about 20 video clips with little results.



I am not sure who snapped what picture here but thanks go to our friend's for letting us use their pics and video taken that day. I hope the video works as Blogger does not seem to operate as it use to for me. If this does work, be sure to see if you can spot two other butterflies in the background high in the sky when the subject goes upward. We kept the song for effect on the windy day. The music Bob sings says the words "high in the sky" as the butterfly is doing just that and they were headed south...

We must have seen over 100 Monarchs throughout our little cruise that day. We had a blast witnessing this FLIGHT OF THE MONARCHS, In the Garden....


Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

15 comments:

  1. Skeeter,
    Happy Valentines day!

    Enjoyed the story and of course the Monarchs in flight. Meg and I go out to the lake in my canoe and look for Monarchs, two years ago we counted about 75, this year maybe 25. In 2004 I was the Monarch monitor on the Eastern Shore of VA for 3 months, one day I found 1500 perched in cherry trees.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Magnificent. That sure was a lot of butterflies. Seems it was getting a nice drink every time it touched the water.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful! You and The Saint sure do have lots of fun!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The migration is so cool! What a bunch of busy butterflies. I love the 'night moves' as it sure takes me back. Now to throw in some 'afternoon delight'...

    Sounds like the weekend was a complete success and oh my on the decadent delight...Happy Valentines Day to you all!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yea!!! The Monarchs are coming. Thanks for the spring hope.
    Sounds like you had a great Valentine's Day with your hubby.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wonderful video skeeter - monarchs are surprisingly tough and resourceful. cheers, cm

    ReplyDelete
  7. I loved your Monarchs. Great captures even though I bet it was tough with all that movement.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I know how hard it is just to try to get a photo of a Monarch in my garden, so I can only imagine how difficult it must have been while you were boating, Skeeter. I'm sure onlookers were wondering what in the world you were doing:) Fantastic capture of the Monarchs.

    I'm glad you had such a great Valentine's Day weekend; that ice cream sundae sure looks enticing!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Good Morning everyone! It was a beautiful day yesterday in the 70's and today should be a bit cooler but still nice. I have plans to get out in it and do some playing in the gardens. Yipeeeeee, I am so getting my MoJo back, LOL...

    Witnessing the Monarchs headed South last fall was awesome to say the least. As we ended the day they were still fluttering by and I did not want to leave the lake. It was just spectacular being there to see them. we should be back at the lake soon…

    Everyone have a Great Day!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sounds like a good weekend and that video is just awesome!!!! So glad you can get outside. It will be a while before I can get outside but I am having fun playing in the dirt in the house by starting lotsa new plants from seed. When I can get outside it might be a problem finding places for them all. Oh well......

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Skeeter,
    What a unique opportunity to see those graceful (?) Monarchs migrating.
    I am drooling over that treat you made for your hubby. Lucky guy.

    I am going to go see how that lemon ice box pie is made now.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a fun story, and how absolutely amazing to encounter monarch butterflies out on the water! The video worked fine. Sounds like you've been having some good times.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I may have seen some of those same Monarchs at the Wildlife Refuge the other day. They were certainly restless then. I wanted to follow them around, but we were walking on a levee with alligators on both sides of us, and for some reason SAM wouldn't let me stray from the path. Maybe I'll see some in my garden this weekend.

    Glad you're getting your mojo back. I enjoyed your excursion. Now I'm off to look at that recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Skeeter, how beautiful it is to be with flying butterflies and lots of them. That is already a privilege. But on serious thoughts i pity them for traversing lakes and oceans just to be where their ancestors came from. And many do not make it to the end. It was like a punishment for the species, maybe a good topic for a story "Legend of the Monarchs". I am sure you enjoyed the sight and the challenge of taking a good photo!

    ReplyDelete
  15. It sounds like you guys had a wonderful Valentine's weekend! Carla

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM WILL BE PROMPTLY FRIED. PLEASE DO NOT LIFT PHOTOS OR WORDS. THANKS!