SUMMER BIRDS
From cocoon forth a butterfly... emerged a summer afternoon, repairing everywhere without design that I could trace except to stay abroad on miscellaneous enterprise.—Emily Dickinson
One Wednesday afternoon, Coralie and I bicycled to the local botanical garden to visit their butterfly exhibit. I had just begun reading Chrysalis, Kim Todd’s biography of seventeenth-century artist and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian. Merian was a pioneer in the study of metamorphosis, a mysterious transformation most dramatically demonstrated by the beautiful insects Merian called ‘summer birds.’
The conservatory, when we stepped inside, was alive with fluttering wings and vibrant blooms. Coralie and I spent nearly an hour strolling up and down the short path—and over the bridge that crossed a warbling stream—photographing and filming the butterflies as they sipped nectar or fruit.
The next morning, Coralie took my money to the garden’s gift shop, to buy the beautiful paperweight whose iridescent jewel tones had caught my eye the day before.
• butterfly exhibit and exotic plants conservatory •
August 16, 2013