Migration? Visitation? Celebration?
photo taken Sunday, September 21, 2025
An irregular visitor to our backyard, startling me with its beauty and attempts to communicate something that remains a mystery since my first sighting of this butterfly in August, 2018, followed three years later in September, 2021, and then again in November of 2023.
Even with my rudimentary knowledge of butterflies, which is less than rudimentary, I understand this is not the same butterfly because the life cycles of adult butterflies are measured in days or weeks, rarely months, and never years.
But sometimes my mind takes flight in a fantasy which allows me to feel this particular butterfly that flew around me yesterday was an old friend who pops in for a visit periodically to remind me that the spirits of my family buried in the Texas soil of Fairview Cemetery in Grimes County have never been totally gone from the person I became because of them. Somehow this butterfly comforts me, gives me hope.
And that’s a good thing, as my Aunt Lucille was fond of saying.
See you next time, my butterfly friend. Safe journeys.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
Comments
7 responses to “The Mystery of the Irregular Butterfly Visitor”
Maybe your family spirits hire a new ride every time they decide to pay you a visit.
Beautiful butterfly! If my memory is still online, I think the species is called a red-spotted purple
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Yes, you are right on target, I think. I almost called it by that name in my post, but I thought I could be wrong since I don’t really see very well anymore!
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Before this summer, I haven’t seen that particular butterfly in a few years. This year I’ve seen several. My memory file for the names of bugs, blossoms, and bushes needs regular dusting to function. But now, when I see one, I’ll think, “There goes one of Sheila’s relations!”
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Please do, Ann. Think of me and my Texas family when you see one…your memory file has always amazed me with your plant and animal treasures…you and Cindy Knoke are the best!!
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Maybe my family does “hire a new ride every time they decide to pay a visit.”
That made me smile.
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What a beautiful flutterby & post Sheila.
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Thank you, Cindy…my Aunt Lucille’s daughter, my first cousin Melissa, called them flutterbies when she was a child.
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