Hey blog friends!
It's been two weeks since my birthday, and I thought I'd share a few photos of my day with Carrie at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona.
Carrie had purchased passes for our local botanical gardens, but kept it as a surprise for me. She told me to wear comfortable shoes, dress for being outside {warm weather} and to bring my camera. I knew I was going to love whatever she had planned! :o)
And I was right! We had a lovely morning, walking in the sunshine, enjoying the last bit of Arizona wildflowers in the garden, seeing cactus in bloom, and some Chihuly art pieces along the way.
{those three light green tall things are Chihuly art}
The gardens have this butterfly exhibit through May 12th, and as my good birthday luck would have it, Carrie and I were there when they received their weekly shipment of butterflies and we got to help release some.
The gardens receive 200 butterflies a week from Florida. It was interesting to learn that the butterflies are captured as soon as they are born {hatched?} and placed in a velum envelope. They are kept at a temperature of 50° which keeps them in a dormant state, and then shipped to Arizona. We were instructed to tear the end of the envelope and then open it, exposing the butterfly to sunlight. Within a few seconds/minutes, the butterfly would slowly flap its wings and take flight. So cool!!!
We had such a wonderful time visiting the gardens, and even had a lovely lunch at their restaurant - that happens to bear my sweet grandma's name: Gertrude's. :o) {The food was really yummy too!}
My birthday was capped off with rainbow cupcakes, a little afternoon nap, pedicures, and then dinner out for the three of us later that evening. What a great way to spend a birthday!
Big thanks to my girl C for making my birthday such a memorable one.
I loved every bit of it!
♥
16 comments:
Botanical gardens are cool and fun and great fodder for photography... but botanical gardens with BUTTERFLIES!!!... be still my heart! How cool that you got to release some. And learn about how they are shipped. Amazing what they can live through!
I love botanical gardens especially ones with butterflies! Your landscape is so different from ours. Absolutly gorgeous - the gardens, the butterflies, the day and you!
Beautiful photos and the last one of you is lovely! Glad you had such a fun day - that's how a birthday should be spent!
What a perfect day!
The glass cactus are amazing!
Sounds like a great day. I'd love to go for a camera outing in a home and garden nearby.
Rinda
It sounds lovely and you look gorgeous. We released some butterflies with the children last year and then were fascinated by it!
The gardens look fascinating....glad you had such a good day.
A beautiful birthday present from your beautiful girl x
What a great gift from your daughter.
It sounds like you had a fantastic time. I remember when John went down to Phoenix on a conference and went to the Botanical Gardens there. Ever since seeing his pictures I've wanted to go and now your pictures have made me want to even more.
Looks like a lovely day Deb! You raised a sweetheart. xoxo
I love this recap of your birthday. Sounds like you had a fantastic day :). Well done Carrie! Xx
I keep meaning to go to the butterfly exhibit but I think it's almost over now until they bring the monarchs in the fall. I've had a lot of butterflies in my yard this year so maybe they're escaping DBG and flying my way.
Lovely to see you looking so wam and relaxed after all those chilly UK photos! You have taken some super phtos ...
Wow, what an experience! I'm so glad you had a lovely day. Husband took the children to the post office today so your parcel is finally on route! I'm stuck on the sofa with ovarian cyst pain again :-(
It was such a fun day! Glad you had a good time. <3
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