LIFE: The Butterfly House

One of the many advantages of having zoo membership is that we can pop in whenever we fancy and not have the pressure of having to see everything, every time. After hearing that the three newest penguins editions had been released into the penguin habit we thought we'd try and spy them. We couldn't, baby penguins kinda look too much like adult penguins. But anyway, on the same trip we took a walk though the butterfly house.

With bright sunshine, 90F heat outside the Labor Day weekend happened to be great time to visit and the butterflies were in their element. For whatever reason, even if my camera wasn't on it's last legs, it's always struggled a little in the butterfly house, but the photos didn't turn out too bad if you don't look too closely that is. 

The Detroit Zoo have a great balance between butterflies as an exhibit and helping the native butterflies. Not only do the zoo offer guides on identifying species found in Michigan but also on how to encourage butterflies into your garden. With the zoo landscaped in such a way that butterfly gardens and especially the Monarch Way Stations decorating the borders, it really does make it all seem to very possible to create in your own space.

LIFE: 30 Days Wild #3

So here rolls out the final part of the #30DaysWild challenge. This last part actually sees me getting out of the burbs and travelling through the countryside between some of America's big cities which made a nice change. It's always a welcome sight seeing cows and horses when you haven't seen them for months on end. The countryside smell, not so much - I'm a proper townie these days can't you tell?!

Day 21 // stuck inside a hospital for hours on end made me welcome the sight of a fluffy cloud afterwards

Day 22 // poppy appeared in my wild patch

Day 23 // my little Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has been in and out of my garden for the last month or so, always too fluttery for a picture but this time she settled long enough for a quick snap!

Day 24 // Wednesday saw us driving to Kings Island, and in the rather warm midday Ohio heat, the shade from the old trees was much appreciated between rides.

Day 25 // lusting over this vertical garden at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens.

Day 26 // Taking Interstate 71 across Ohio to Pennsylvania we had a quick stop at a rest stop right in the middle of the countryside. Hay bails and all.

Day 27 // Totally missed this day - crazed dog and a kids party to blame.

Day 28 // Pretty blue skies, fluffy clouds and green fields along the Ohio Turnpike.

Day 29 // First sweet peas of the year picked, fresh from the garden.

Day 30 // morning working in the veg patch and picking some fruit & veg fresh from the garden

Missing only one day on my first of such photograph challenge I think was pretty good. #30DaysWild has certainly made me more aware of what nature is around me, that you don't necessarily have to be out in the wild per say to enjoy it.  Which in turn has made me even more grateful for my garden and having a park (even if it's more of a playground) close by. And even if you're just travelling through the countryside, it's nice to see and appreciate it. It's encouraged me to get learning more about the wild flowers, the birds, the butterflies that pass by, being able to put names to things is always an advantage in my book.

If you missed the first two parts to #30DaysWild you can find them here and here.

GARDEN: Milkweed & the Plight of Monarch Butterfly

Source

One thing that got me through this dreadfully long and cold winter was thoughts about my garden and my plans for creating (or at least trying to, a butterfly garden). There something so incredibly beautiful about spotting a butterfly fluttering around your garden. But there is one butterfly in particular that has seen it's number dramatically decline in the last 20 years - the Monarch butterfly. This keystone American species, well they really need your help. 

Freak weather, the increasing use of genetically modified crops and a national shortage of milkweed have all contributed in the challenges a Monarch butterfly faces in it's 3,000 mile mitigation from as far north as Canada down to Mexico, the west coast of California or Florida. Yet there is a simple way to help - by planting milkweed. Why is this plant important? Well it's their only larval food source, the only plant they lay their eggs upon. But it's being increasingly removed by farmers and gardeners alike. 

Fall (September - November) Monarch Migration in North America (source)

This vital source for the Monarch butterfly is pretty easy to get your hands on whether it's through a local garden center or online in either seeds or plants. Back in September I came across the seed program run by the Live Monarch Foundation which was started after the death of 80% of the entire monarch bleeding program in a extremely cold winter in Mexico back in 2002. Since then the foundation has come to promote the replanting of milkweed and the care of Monarch caterpillars. For a small donation (starting at $1 = 50 seeds and going upwards) plus postage (49c) you'll be sent some milkweed seeds suitable for your region with planting instructions. Within a two weeks my order had arrived and are being stored away in a drawer until spring and I can get to sow them in my garden. But it is important that pets are kept away from milkweed, as it's highly poisonous to cats and dogs.

Monarchs have been recorded in the UK, although there's only been about 500 recordings. Milkweed is not native to the UK so consider planting general butterfly loving plants - lavender, chives, purple cone flowers, sunflowers, holly, ivy, to just leaving in nettles, thistles and dandelions. There's a handy PDF that highlights RHS recommended plants for attracting butterflies if you're UK based (because I know a lot of my readers are all back in my homeland so I like to keep you all in the picture too!).

For me, my garden is as much about having an outside space as it is to help the wildlife. Whether it's a bee, a butterfly or a bird, my garden is for them as much as it is for me and something I hope to share more once it's back to proper gardening weather. So if you have that spare corner, think about helping out the wildlife.

ZOO TIMES: The Butterfly House

Steamed up glasses and camera lenses are always worth suffering for a step inside any Butterfly House. I remember being intrigued as a young girl by one in Hornsea and then and one of my many visa travel adventures down to London enjoying an hour inside a special butterfly tent outside the British Museum to calm the nerves back in 2011.

The Detroit Zoo Butterfly House is home to about 70 different species, all free to fly around above your head in their tropical environment. During the summer months they are everywhere, but like us humans, they weren't particularly impressed with the winter chill and it actually affects how much they want to fly. Still a couple of were feeling cooperative in letting me photograph them and hopefully the next visit will be met with warmer weather and the slights of those beautiful wings.

LIFE: As The Leaves Start to Change

Here in Michigan the leaves are slowly starting to turn. Their edges are turning burnt yellows and oranges and a few have found their way to the ground. Days are getting a little cooler, yet it can be humid and foggy and mornings have a crisper edge to them and yes, yesterday we stuck the heating back on. Autumn, or fall as they term it in the US has always been one of my favourite times of the year. The sound of crunching leaves, ripening apples and now the prospect of visiting local cider mills is exciting and my birthday in a few weeks. Butterflies are also a little easier to spy as the summer drifts slowly into autumn, just like this pretty beauty at the Kensington Metropark.

Stratton Butterfly Vintage Compact

I will be the first in admitting I'm not a big collector of Stratton compacts [I'm picky, I know]. To me their popularity and the ability to be able to find them easy is a little off putting. In turn I love my small brands. But I love butterflies - they have to be one of my favourite things to photograph, I love butterfly houses in zoos and Joe is always amazed at how well I can name any we come across on a walk. So much that I'm currently reading a book all about the life of a butterfly - knowing they only live a couple of months makes you remember just how fragile their beauty is. The book - Wings in the Meadow documents the tale of one butterfly through words and brilliant illustrations [last image]. So being the big butterfly fan that I am, how could I turn this compact down especially when I come to think about it how I'm adding to my collection of powder compacts featuring butterflies in their designs [now up to three!] alongside this Marhill and another Stratton double mirrored compact.

The pale blue background of the compacts top really sets the butterfly colours off, although it's probably rather abstract the butterfly is rather reminiscent of the Monarch butterfly. The compact itself is unused - it's even compete with it's original "inspected by" little slip of paper and instructions. It is suffering a lot with regards to it's mirror - you can just see in the image that the mirrors gone a bit green and blotchy but I can see pass that too. 

I always wonder how English compacts made their way over to the USA.

DETROIT: The Zoo!

Another weekend, another zoo, this one being the one that's only a ten or so minute drive from our apartment - the Detroit Zoo. Visiting on Martin Luther King day [Monday] we spent a couple of hours wander around with groups of families amongst a covering of snow and iced up ponds, upon which many animals seemed to be at home - especially the geese. While some of the animals had been taken off exhibit because of winter/snowy weather there was still plenty to see. I particularly loved the conservatory filled with tropical butterflies which are always great to try and photograph and the underwater tunnel within which seals and the polar bears can swim above your head. Saying that, I think we've run out of zoo's till we figure out where to venture to for a holiday/road trip.

A flamingo and a mirror ... some more vintage compacts

Those of you who are regular readers will know this girl is a vintage powder compact lover. Yet the more vintage powder compacts a girl gets the more picky she gets about the ones she likes or the ones she'll buy. Its the pitfall of getting knowledgeable about something you collect. You sadly don't want any old compact. It's a shame to an extent. Half my problems are solved when Joe buys my presents, he has this most amazing taste about compacts regards of knowing what company they are or their age or history. He just knows. It's that kind of knowledge that irreplaceable and very handy to have. I think I must have had a big grumble about all the "gold" toned compacts out there in the world, at one points that was all I could see; so to give me a surprise and so add a little colour, JJ came up with this little stunner!

In one part it's a step away from the normal powder compact in as much as it's just a mirrored compact rather then one to hold any kind of make-up. This in a point makes it harder to date - seeing it's without  powder it's therefore missing it's traditional Stratton stamp that a collector would use to age its dating. Regardless its still gorgeous and still Stratton in make. The white enamelled top is delicately designed with a blue butterfly and pink roses. I really should be more girlie and buy a proper handbag for work and keep and use this gorgeous compact everyday. Sometimes I just don't want to use and spoil it.

Because compacts aren't the easiest to objects to find in and around where I live, any visit to a new place is always an opportunity to hunt out compacts. Mine and Joe's holiday to Edinburgh became the perfect hunting ground especially with an antique shop within a five minute walk away from the flat we were renting. The only down side was that those we found, weren't cheap.

That was until we stumbled upon this Flamingo oval shaped compact. As a company Flamingo, established by Fulemn Engineering Ltd, were only in production during the early 1950s their limited impact seems to be due to the company's inability to break through a market already full of  compacts by Stratton, Mascott and Kigu to name but three. Therefore run of Flamingo compacts were short and today are very uncommon.

As a large oval shape the edging is gold toned with a topping of  white and red fuchsias with black and gold leaves. Flamingo compacts are sturdy well designed; the company's name alongside "made in England" is stamped under the hinge to the back of the compact. While it does not contain a powder lid, any powder is kept in by a thick puff of which mine still has its original. The puffs thickness and tight fitting acting as a thorough stopper with an additional felt gasket keeping everything in place. 

I slightly feel in love with it instantly until I saw the price. At £35 I was rather shocked a compact could command a price that high but all the ones i'd pulled out to potentially buy were around the £30-£40 mark. But then again I was on holiday so that was the only justification I needed!

The compacts! Yeyness

So here is the really fun part [although I do know that gifts aren't the important thing in relationships, its about the companionship and romance and the love, but I just really wanted to share these gifts with you all]. Although I totally adore the pendant Joe gave me and I blogged about yesterday, compacts are just, well they are my number one vintage thing to collect. I originally blogged back in October last year [here] about this 1950s Marhill compact, but here it is in the fresh. Its amazing what a bit of sunlight will do to let the mother of pearl "slab" [I call it a slab because it's not the lightest of compacts because of this stone topping] top shine and dance. Upon the multicoloured embedded white sheet of mother of pearl flutters two little beady butterflies - they are utterly divine.  

As I mentioned at the time, Marhill as a company was based upon 5th Avenue in New York was one of the leading mother of pearl manufactures for gifts and beauty accessories like this compact alongside cigarette and lipstick holders. 

Open up the compact reveals is gorgeous gold toned flatter lid held tightly in place by its clasp. It has remained unused, with its cotton wool like bottom clean and soft, further settled by its original "Marhill, Fashioned on Fifth Avenue" sticker still tightly in place.

The next compact is another 1950s gorgeous gold toned metal compact, which remaining in its simplicity adds too its glamour. Shaped in the same style as the Marhill [measuring 2.5x2.75 inches] this Pegi of Paris compact is a hidden gem - there nothing either in books or upon the internet about this manufacture, other then perhaps a link to Revlon?

The Pegi compact comes with its original puff and shift, with "Pegi, Paris" embolden in gold lettering upon the puff's face. And underneath the paper covering a very special additional gift was held - a gorgeous and loving poem. Its words will remain secret. I am a very very lucky girl. 

Both compacts make you wonder about their stories. By whom were they originally brought? How did the French Compact end up in America? And now for both, a new story is restarting with a brief holiday in the UK, only for them to return back to America with my very own adventures. 

So those are my gorgeous presents. I'm a totally lucky girl and I have an amazing guy who just has the most amazing eye for gifts.