Long weekends rock, and this past one was no exception (thanks Dr. MLK Jr!). John and I had a fun weekend that was both relaxing and productive. I felt so refreshed this morning from the wonderful weekend, that I actually didn't mind coming to work (at least until I got here)!
On Saturday, John and I went to Magic Wings, a Butterfly Conservatory filled with butterflies, moths and tropical vegetation located in South Deerfield, MA. I've heard about this place a million times, but I've never been myself. I figured this weekend would be a great time for us to finally go...what better time is there to go and enjoy a tropical oasis filled with lush vegetation and beautiful butterflies than on a cold January day?
When you first enter Magic Wings, there is a small room with glass aquariums filled with strange and exotic creatures. I was particularly fond of the frogs...their colors and patterns are so beautiful and unique:
There were also strange and creepy looking insects and bugs (yuck!):
After the aquarium room, you enter the conservatory...two large greenhouses filled with beautiful vegetation and butterflies. First, we saw many cocoons (some already hatched and some on the verge of hatching) and we even got to see a brand new butterfly drying it's beautiful wings:
After that, we just walked around and enjoyed the beautiful surroundings. Looking for, and at times chasing, the butterflies made me feel like a kid again! We were particularly fond of the brightly colored butterflies, especially the blue ones (blue is both John's and my favorite color!). Of course, these butterflies seemed to be the fastest, most erratic flying butterflies in the place. And when we finally did find ones that had landed, they had their wings tightly closed so you couldn't see their vivid colors. Our attempts at getting them to spread their wings by blowing on them and shaking the plants they were on failed miserably :-) But, we enjoyed it nonetheless and got to escape the winter blues for an afternoon. We got some great photos, so I'll stop with the narrative and let the photos speak for themselves:
Saturday night we just stayed home, had a few glasses of wine, watched a movie and played some checkers. I am embarrassed to say that John beat me 3 times in a row! I'm blaming my triple loss on the wine :-) We watched "Wild Hogs" starring John Travolta, Martin Lawrence, Tim Allen and William H. Macy. It was totally cheesy, but I really liked it. I thought it was funny (perhaps also because of the wine) and heartwarming.
