Two-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Mixed Art by kenne
If you have a past with which you feel dissatisfied,
then forget it, now.
Imagine a new story for your life and believe in it.
Focus only on the moments
when you achieved what you desired,
and that strength will help you
to get what you want.
— Paulo Coelho
Two-tailed Swallowtail, Arizona’s State Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail (May 2012) — Image by kenne
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail Butterfly On A Mexican Bird of Paradise — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— R. Buckminster Fuller
Two-Tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Image by kenne
Beauty and size make the two-tailed swallowtail butterfly (Papilio multicaudata) an impressive specimen with a nearly five-inch wingspan and a body that approaches two inches in length. So impressive that is was designated the Arizona state butterfly in 2001.
Near the top of the yellow wings are 4 markings of almost parallel black lines. The posterior portion of the wings holds blue dots surrounded by black markings that curve to form a “w” shape when the wings are open. Below these dots are more rectangular shaped orange bars emblazoned into the dark outline of the wing.
Swallowtail Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
“Come Fly With Me” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— The Tempest
Whimsical Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
There’s a naked butterfly
With black and yellow wings
On a yellow body attracted to
Hidden wonders when rain
Washes away desert dust
Letting the world change —
I’m happy to watch the wind.
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Image by kenne
Mt. Lemmon in August
At least once or twice a week
We escape the desert heat
Driving the twisting highway
Where saguaros and dried
Desert plants cover the landscape.
Monsoon rains have soaked
The mountains not making it
To the lower elevations where
False expectations continue
To drive our conversations.
With each mountain road turn
The vegetation changes, first
The oak-grassland followed by
The pine-oak woodlands, chaparral
And the pine forest biomes.
A world apart from the desert below
Enjoying the cool mountain air
Clouds begin moving almost
Without motion soon the wind
Blows through the tall ponderosas.
Yet how gentle it seems the hikers
Knowing everything was just
A moment unable to conceive
The skyline on the ridge broken
By a darkening sky about to rupture.
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Two-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly On a Thistle Wildflower — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
Two-Tailed Swallowtail Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— from Burnt Norton by T.S. Eliot
A student holds a Two-tailed Swallowtail just after coming out of its cocoon.
Just outside the Sabino Canyon Visitors Center, A Junior Naturalist (7th grader) showed a Two-tailed Swallowtail with wings still curved, just having emerged from her cocoon. This image represents the last stage of a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, which began with a very hungry caterpillar hatching from an egg. The caterpillar will spend this phase of its life stuffing itself with leaves, growing plumper and longer through a series of molts in which it sheds its skin. Then, one day the caterpillar stops eating, suspends itself upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon where the caterpillar digests itself, eventually emerging as a butterfly. Cool!!
— kenne
Images by kenne
My Dream Butterfly — Photo-Artistry by kenne
— kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 