More butterflies

This is the last batch of butterfly photos. The Butterfly Pavilion has a constant supply from all over the world. Every day more emerge and are released to flutter around the conservatory.
Such as this newly hatched one, which obligingly posed for photos on a curator's sleeve.
Here's another, fanned out on a leaf. I'm sorry I didn't get their names. I'll call this one Bob.
Bob decided to move to another leaf, invoking the wrath of ... George? Well, I don't know if was wrath, but George seemed pretty agitated, furiously fluttering as close as he could get without making contact. Or maybe Bob is really Roberta and George was making moves on her. Who knows?
Then there was this one, who seemed quite feminine. I'll call her Lucy. Pretty girl!
Finally, a butterfly whose motto is "Leaf me alone!" I'll call her Greta. She had the most impressive camouflage of all.
I guess this is a good post for the first day of spring, which here in the Mountain time zone starts at 11:48 tonight.

Happy spring!

On a roll

I'm getting the hang of this Nutella loaf thing. Spreading the dough out into a bigger rectangle and using about half a small jar of Nutella gets it closer to what I envisioned.

Cow-orkers, of course, say Thumbs Up!

Last week it was teddy bears

Someone really likes to dress up their steps.
I don't know if the bunnies and whatnot got brought inside before it rained, sleeted and snowed.

(Sorry for the crummy angle on the photo. I should go back and shoot it properly. Or maybe just split up the stitched photo. It's making me a little seasick. Er, seesick? )

Snowphie

The cellphone camera does some weird things sometimes when you're trying to capture a moving target:

But it does OK on video, if you keep it small.
Whenever it snows, Sophie is full of energy that belies her 13 years.

(Though you can tell on that last jump she's all, "Would you stop with the allez-oups already!")

Butterfly on pavement

This unassuming fellow was hanging out on the walkway, with parents trying to steer their grasping toddlers around him. "No honey, don't touch!" (Toddler's typical response: "Squeeeeeeee!!!!!" Lunge.)
His predator-startling flash of brilliance wasn't very effective in such a situation, but it was pretty, if a little tattered.

Click the following photo to make it larger. I really like the sharpness of detail on the body contrasted with the blurred wings.

Stout-hearted

Inspired by doggybloggy, here's a joke in honor of St. Patrick's Day:

An Englishman, a Scotsman and an Irishman walk into a bar, and each orders a pint of Guinness. Just as the barkeep sets their glasses down, three flies just happen to land in the men's drinks, one per pint.

The Englishman makes a moue of distaste and pushes his glass away. "I can't drink this! Bring me a fresh glass."

The Scotsman, being a frugal sort, simply flicks the fly out of his drink and proceeds to enjoy his beer.

The Irishman, outraged, reaches into his drink, grabs the fly by the wings and shakes it, yelling, "Spit it out, ya little bugger!"

Mondayamino

In honor of El Camino day over at Jalopnik.com, I present one rare model from my 'hood. Most likely a '65 (or therabouts), it's got a 396 Turbo-Jet engine. Rrrrrrooowrrrr.

Maybe I'll go take another shot of it later, covered with snow. I doubt it'll be going anywhere today.

Spring proceeds

From my walk yesterday:
And you know what this means, don't you? Yes ... it's snowing again.

Phnomenal

My friend Beeb went to Cambodia, and brought me back something much nicer than a lousy t-shirt:
A jar of cardamom pods and a container of palm sugar that she watched being made.

The cardamom has many uses, from a coffee flavoring to spicing up curries and pilafs, and even some Scandinavian pastries.

Palm sugar I've seen in solid form (usually sold in bricks, discs or cones in Asian groceries), but I've not encountered the honey-like version before. It makes sense, though, as it is prepared just like maple sugar, by boiling the sap down. First it's a syrup, and then solid.

I have some ideas for using the cardamom, but what's the bext way to use the sugar? Anyone have any ideas?

The backdrop for the photo above is the longer-lasting portion of Beeb's gift: a messenger bag made from Cambodian newspapers! I love it.
Sophie just wants to know if there are treats in it.

I wonder what articles they used? (I'll have to get a scan later of a Korean Christmas card I got that uses an English-language newspaper page as a backdrop. It's very festive until you look at the stories, and they're all about murders and tornadoes.)

WANT

Our neighbor Bruce

This is Bruce. He lives a few doors down.

Bruce is always happy if you stop to give him a skritch.

But we don't stop long. Sophie disapproves.

Car bombs?

Now that's tacky.

Nutella bites

I'm sure you've on pins and needles (ahem) since my mystery post. No, I'm not mainlining Nutella. It's a substance best administered orally, and I wanted to see if I could improve my delivery system by creating Nutella bites: little nuggets of dough filled with the stuff and baked like monkey bread.

Here's the result:
Looks pretty good, doesn't it? BUT.
When I cut it open (photo on the left), I found that I really wasn't able to get that much Nutella inside using a poultry injector. (Which I suspected; it was not easy squeezing the plunger!) For comparison, I also filled some dough balls by spreading them out, spooning a big dollop of Nutella on and wrapping the dough around it. (Photo on the right.)

That proved more successful:
Still, the Nutella ends up mostly near the edges rather than the center. I'm not sure how to remedy that. Maybe I can't. Do you have any ideas?

I ate the whole plate yesterday (in the interest of quality testing, of course), then lapsed into a carb- and chocolate-induced coma. Ah, the prices we pay in search of perfection.

What is it? No. 8

Here's one that may not leave you much more enlightened after you click the photo. (That is, if you click the photo, you'll see exactly what this is, but the question remains: Why?) Let's just say I'm doing a little experimenting. I'll reveal the results later.

Meet the owl butterfly

While Rosie the tarantula is fun to visit at the Butterfly Pavilion, the butterflies are of course the real attraction. We happened to get there just when they were about to release some newly hatched butterflies. This fellow (gal?) is an owl butterfly, native to Central and South America.
The moniker comes from the large spot, natch, which is designed to scare off predators. But this guy also has a backup defense: a snake head. See it there, facing right?

Apparently holding the butterfly that way doesn't harm it, but we were warned not to let any butterfly walk on our skin; the oils will muck up the tastebuds in their feet (!).
Here's a happier fellow, noshing on a rotten banana (and getting a taste through his toes, presumably.)

Many butterflies will have dull-colored or camouflaged patterns on the outsides of their wings, but brightly colored interior patterns, which they will flash when threatened as another means to startle predators and chase them away.
Here you can see his long tongue, going to town on the banana.
Yum! Maybe I should make some banana bread today.