Yesterday was my birthday and I am sure I am the only person ever to get a kiss from a butterfly on my birthday! Maybe I am the only person to ever be kissed by a butterfly, ever! We went to one of my favorite places, Houston’s Butterfly Center at the Museum of Natural Science. I can’t get enough of that place. The first part of the exhibit has gleefully delightful creepy-crawlies of all sorts that must be oohed, aaahed and eeeewed at appropriately. There are particularly enormous, beautiful katydids whose leaf bodies must have taken Gaia quite a while to fashion so very perfectly. A budding 7 year old zoologist was adamant that I admire the neon blue scorpion with the requisite level of admiration. A glass enclosed wall houses rows of suspended cocoons from which the butterflies emerge, allow their wings to dry, and are then transported by their human caretakers to the enormous-several story-jungle paradise-glass butterfly-ary, complete with a hefty orange and green sagacious Iguana Lord. Once inside the lofty home of the Iguana Lord, all manner of unidentifiable tropical plants shoot to the far off ceiling, and of course lots and lots of equally unidentifiable butterflies flitter and flutter and perch and float, feasting on large plates of exotic fruits supplied by their human friends. One such friend walked the stone paths with a colossal Owl Butterfly happily sitting, wings closed, right-smack on top of her head. A milliner’s inspiration!
As we headed up the spiraling stone stairs that corkscrew the outer edge of the butterfly-ary, I am startled to notice that a large Rice Paper Butterfly (one of my very favorites!), has landed, wings wide, on the lacy edge of my maroon camisole. In other words, right at my breast! So I am standing there thrilled, amazed, delighted! Looking down, I see he walks a few butterfly-y steps upward, further onto my skin - and tickly, tickle, tickle!- his little black feets are quite spiny! To my complete astonishment, he flit-flit-flutters right up to my mouth to have a little kissy, and in my surprise, I pssssspht! And away he flies, having stolen a kiss!
As we headed up the spiraling stone stairs that corkscrew the outer edge of the butterfly-ary, I am startled to notice that a large Rice Paper Butterfly (one of my very favorites!), has landed, wings wide, on the lacy edge of my maroon camisole. In other words, right at my breast! So I am standing there thrilled, amazed, delighted! Looking down, I see he walks a few butterfly-y steps upward, further onto my skin - and tickly, tickle, tickle!- his little black feets are quite spiny! To my complete astonishment, he flit-flit-flutters right up to my mouth to have a little kissy, and in my surprise, I pssssspht! And away he flies, having stolen a kiss!
Hooray! The Kissing Butterfly Bandit has struck again!
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