An Amazing eye opener!

The Desert Botanical Gardens!!!
   

Glass Sculpture at the entrance to the gardens

    What an amazing weekend starter... Early Friday morning, as beautiful as it was, I had a most glorious stroll through the Desert Botanical Gardens... It was cool out, but not too much... then warmed up pleasantly... The trails were amazing and the environment was calming. When they say a picture says a thousand words, it is so true... The exhibits were very enticing to walk through, along with visitors, the residents were welcoming.
                                       

 Saguaro in flower

A Dove enjoying the a.m. warmth...

 

Bunnies everywhere (well jack rabbits I think!)

A collard Lizard basking in the morning warmth!

Posing for the camera a ground squirrel having a morning cleaning

     The colors were amazing and riddled with punch, in every setting.. We arrived there 8: 00 a.m. and we strolled around each garden until 1:00 p.m. ish.  The diversity of each garden devoted a theme of elegance.

     I tried to get names of all of these beautiful flowers, but I didn't find a lot of names plates, to be able to identify them, please forgive my lack of identifications!

      At one point we visited the Butterfly Garden exhibit. I had never visited such a wondrous sight in my life.. I waltzed in this area thinking that I would see the poor butterflies in a huge case and seeing a short lived life cycle of the airy flighty insects. 

A Zebra Long Wing enjoying orange slices

      I was never  so wrong.  I walked in this orchestrated door of  dancing flowers, there were hundreds of these dancing flowers.  The habitat was incredible, flowers for their feast everywhere, damp sandy areas for there drink, orange slices on pedestals, and the most gentle of helpers making sure that the dancing flowers were safe from accidental stepping upon holding feather dusters to place there delicate selves on a soft petal to be safe and float to their next destination...

A couple of Queen butterflies

      I couldn't believe my eyes,  with every one of these beauties that past looked like a repeat of the last one seen... Then as I looked a little closer, each mark on them, each curve they had, and each rich color shinning was different...  That made them different.. And I fell in luv all over again...

I never knew how busy they were!

I never how picky they needed to be either!

These were the species that lived in this exhibit! I counted 6 that I identified.

Queen - Danaus gilippus
Zebra Long Wing - Heliconius Charitonius
Julia - Dryas iulia
Pipevine Swallowtail - Battus philenor
Buckeye - Junonia coenia
Gulf Fritillary - Agranulis vanillae

I actually got to hold one!!!

Pipevine Swallowtail

 

Julia

     Well, nature has it's moment of love, you know, I had to take a picture of this one, well I had my husband do this one, Well, since he was right there ... But of course, I was the one noticing!  LOL!

     Whats better than being a butterfly... living with the beauty of flowers, flower hopping and having a friends to visit!

These two were entwined with lovemaking! 

      These must be a couple of hundred years old but I can't be for sure. They are just amazing of how huge they are!!!

Husband giving scale!!!

looks like worms entwined in a ball!

Alien spawn?

    I thought when I had seen the  above plant what alien landed and planted this, I did touch it, it was bubble like and sticky, it made me kind of shiver, it was so weird. I couldn't find the name, I wanted to in the worst way.. but no luck!

Looks like it's melting!

A sea of Yellow

    
     I have so many pictures of this incredible place. I choose a couple of my favorites.  I can go on forever... 
     If anything, get out of your house and take a hike, especially at such a calm and beautiful place of some sort, it's worth the enlightenment of meeting your MUSE!!!  I'm not sure I met my MUSE, but extending myself to try, was worth ever bit!!!