You may very well wonder about this title. There is indeed a clue in my butterfly scarf. And again you may think you have seen this scarf before. Not quite….I have the identical design with a mauve background featured in Series 1, Blog 41 GIRAFFE COTTAGE. I just happened to be wearing it on that particular occasion when a family party went to a wild life park in England, not deepest Africa I may add, to stay overnight in Giraffe Cottage and go on a safari. This was a treat for my eldest daughter for her sixtieth birthday from her three daughters. As granny, I tagged along. My scarf today is bolder with a deep shocking pink background, same butterfly design. Silk of course and glamorous.
I suppose I must have a thing about butterflies as my second blog was indeed entitled LA FARFALLA recounting adventures in Capri. Having written one hundred blogs over one hundred days, I dropped down to one a week and my third butterfly scarf, bought unexpectedly in the New Forest heralded the Butterfly Count July-August 2020. I then wrote BUTTERFLIES on July 2nd as Blog 2 in Series 2. I can hardly believe another year has passed and yet another butterfly count has taken place. I don’t know if our unusual weather patterns had anything to do with it, but very few butterflies were around at the time of the count this year. As I write later in the month, we now have an exceptional number to be seen but the official count has passed.
Both my daughters have sent me butterfly photos from their Wiltshire gardens this week so it seems apt I share these with you. The Peacocks and Red Admirals seem to be the most prolific but there have been Painted Ladies, Blues, Small Tigers, Commas and Large Whites. So where does Corfu come into this? As part of that sixtieth birthday celebration in 2018, our family went on a wonderful holiday to Corfu in these carefree, Covid 19-free days when travel was easy. We stayed high in the hills in two adjoining villas, with two swimming pools, stunning views over olive groves and a nightmare drive round hairpin bends. To reach the tiny harbour, we would take a boat in the evening to the next bay to enjoy a typical Greek evening of singing, music and dancing. There were lots of butterflies. No wonder Mrs.Durrell and her family lived such an idyllic life there.
I don’t do envy, but that same birthday girl is going off there again to celebrate her husband’s birthday at the end of this month, an on-the-spur-of-the-moment decision whilst isolating this week having been in contact with her own daughter who has Covid. Their decision has renewed my memories of these past celebrations and made me appreciate former freedom to travel and yet have hope for the future. My Covid stricken granddaughter is recovering and nobody else has tested positive. I hope they see some unusual butterflies on their Greek island.
My final thought is with the 20th anniversary of the Twin Towers catastrophe coming up on 11th September. Last year, I was approached by an American literary agent about putting my blogs into a book. I told her I wanted the cover page to show my butterfly scarf by Salvatore Ferragamo which I featured in LA FARFALLA. She remarked it was her favourite scarf. We never met but I liked her choice of necklace which I saw her wear in a Press photo. It was a simple silver butterfly. It struck a bond. She sent a shiver down my spine as she recounted jogging in New York on that fateful day nearly twenty years ago and seeing a cloud of butterflies, a rare sight in the heart of the city. She felt they were the souls of the lost lives in that senseless tragedy. I don’t know if it is relevant but on that holiday in Corfu, I learned of the death of a dear old friend and then the birth of my second great grandson. Can’t honestly say I remember if I saw any butterflies that day. The book deal did not come off, but granddaughter Ella and I are presently working this month on self publishing so who knows, the first book may be ready by Christmas. I wonder if I will have run out of scarves by then? Probably not. I hope I am still having adventures.
Let me know if you see an unusual butterfly in your neck of the woods this week…..
At least pause for a moment to look.
Busy Bee, Scarf Face!
Series 2, Blog 58.
Always grateful for my typing mistakes to be noticed which can then be rectified.
I so enjoy reading your blog. Sorry the pandemic is not over but your continued writing is one bright spot resulting from that grim reality.
Dear Hazell, I’m not sure if you have the ability to edit your stories, but it’s September 11, not 12. I was living in New Orleans at the time; my sister was in New York on a trip to celebrate her husband’s birthday, and she woke me with a phone call, directing me to turn on the telly, and we watched together as the second plane hit the second tower. So horrifying. For the next several months, my life as an editor at our daily newspaper was consumed with the story of Sept. 11 and the aftermath: part tragic and part uplifting. All the stories of people helping others helped get me through it.