Yesterday was beautiful, and a perfect day to get outside during lunch and walk around and see the sites. South Kensington is a really lovely area with lots of cute restaurants, specialty shops, and of course museums – but I almost never go to any of them because I work in the area. After work I usually want to go home and on the weekend I don’t want to ride back to work. As a result, I’m trying to make an effort to wander around a bit during lunch and yesterday that took me to Sensational Butterflies on the lawn of the Natural History Museum.
The museum itself is free to visit, but Sensational Butteflies costs £5.90 per person – which I think is worth it. Also, the exhibit is outside the actual museum building. This is nice because you don’t have to deal with the crush of the crowds. However, if you have the time you should at least go in and see the entry way to the museum because it’s really impressive.
Inside the tent it’s humid with a winding path through a garden of luscious colorful plants. And butterflies are everywhere. Everywhere. I spent the first five minutes in the corner nearest to the door because there were so many butterflies gathered together on the wall, the ceiling, the ground, and on the plants. I’ve been to butterfly enclosures like this before and I’m blown away every time. It feels like such a privilege to get to see these butterflies so close. If If I see one beautiful butterfly whiz by me out in the regular world then I’m totally delighted. Here at the exhibit, I get to see not just one, but many different species all in one day, and all next to each other?! It’s a freaking treat.
I appreciated the sign that listed the types of butterflies with their pictures. I definitely didn’t see (or realize that I saw) all of those butterflies but I did see lots of different varieties. I think the diversity of patterns and colors is so amazing. The brown one in the photo above has almost neon yellow spots. I saw others that blended in beautifully with flowers and some that were mostly black with just a hint of color.
One of the butterflies I saw the most was the Blue Morpho. For the longest time I didn’t realize that the butterflies I was seeing were the same kind because it is two different colors! The outside has a brown circular/spotty pattern, while the inside is a vibrant blue. You can see what I’m talking about in the photos below. Isn’t that amazing? Two totally different looks and both so beautiful.
In addition to beautiful butterflies, there were also some cocoons and butterflies/caterpillars in various states of transition. The pictures of the cocoons aren’t get because you can see my reflection, but I think you can get the idea of how many there were and you can see some butterflies that had already emerged. I liked the cocoons because some of them were small and tight, some of them bulging, and some of them had just the beginnings of an emerging butterfly. I think it must be a little like seeing a chick hatch from an egg. In the photo below in the top right you can just see a guy in a blue shirt. He was behind the cocoon cabinet and was checking on everything and letting the fully ready butterflies out.
But, the cocoon/butterfly that I found most impressive was the one pictured below on the left. It is hard to tell from the photo, but it was enormous. Literally that butterfly is about the size of my face. Those wings look like a painting. The shape and colors is elegant and serene. Usually I’m drawn to the flashy brightly colored butterflies, but this guy – although brown – is glorious.
The one thing my camera couldn’t capture is all the fluttering. So much fluttering. Fluttering as they fly by, fluttering as they sit there, fluttering as they take nectar from flowers. The butterflies not only flutter, they zoom by. There are so many of them and if you stand still for too long they start to fly all around you as if they are used to you being in their space. One even landed on my camera. It’s delightful and surprising, and I even caught myself jumping a few times at how close and how fast the butterflies flew around me. It’s a really cool experience to observe something so beautiful and fragile (and also sometimes hearty too) in such a close environment. I totally recommend the experience. Go find some butterflies near you.
