Callaway Gardens...

...was my goal when I left home this morning. I had a note on my calendar to attend a volunteer training session for learning about the Day Butterfly Center. I have been an occasional, sporadic volunteer worker at the Gardens in the past, assisting  (sort of) with several workshops like basket making, or how to design a landscape to attract pollinators. And helping a couple of times with the annual Spring Plant sale.

But I thought I would enjoy learning more about the workings of the Butterfly exhibit and possibly get motivated to go on a regular basis to assist with some of the work they do. I am sure the Day Center, like most every other area of the Gardens is struggling with staffing issues, and would welcome all the un-paid labor/extra hands that might show up offering a few hours of assistance. More work needing to be done than there are dollars or bodies to get things accomplished.

There were four other trainees who met in a classroom. And received a handbook, going over a booklet that was mostly about customer service. Covering the 'do's and dont's' of interacting with people who have paid admission to view the beauty of the woods, floral areas, native plants, insects, birds, assorted wildlife. A bit of history of the origins of the Butterfly Center, and Callaway family.

Then we went to visit the butterflies. The ones in the center are all tropical, being shipped from various places in south east Asia, Central America, where there are 'farms' that supply the chrysalis. I guess feeding and growing the butterflies that lay the eggs, closely watched until the right stage, and grabbed up to air freight to places that have been USDA approved to receive the hatchlings. The manager said that they have occasionally lost an entire shipment that would be held up or set aside or lost in customs, and the butterflies would hatch and die in the shipping container, with no way to get out to food or water.

I think I will try to start volunteering on a regular basis: pinning the chrysalis on boards where they mount them in a glass front box, so people can watch them emerge, and turn into wonderous wonders. We saw some today that were just coming out of the chrysalis, and drying out their wings so they could fly, get ready to be released into the enclosed tropical garden in the glass walled Center.
Would that be such a neat thing to do? Take them out of the box and prep those little inconspicuous cocoons - get them ready to turn into gloriously colored, light as a feather flutter-bys?