Yesterday (October 10th) was World Mental Health Day.
It was a day to talk about mental well being and another try and removing the negative attitudes toward it. I saw several messages and tweets from online creators talking about their own issues, struggles and victories with various mental struggles. It was encouraging and heartwarming to someone like me.
My struggles have been with depression, anxiety disorder, panic attacks and PTSD. I am taking daily medication and see a therapist once a month. Where I am now compared to five years ago is like night and day. I still struggle but I can function now with more confidence. I used to experience panic attacks up to four times a week, now its one to two times a month. I used to never leave my bed because the depression was telling me everything was pointless. Now when I have those thoughts creeping in I go "Oh, just the depression talking," and refocus.
Depression is awful. It sucks your life away. It whispers horrible things to you, convincing you that life is pointless, nothing matters, you are a burden, the world is better off without you... it's an illness that can destroy your most basic instinct - to survive. It is a suffocating mess to deal with. It ruins your perceptions of relationships, reality and your own worth.
If you are struggling with mental issues know you are not alone and there is hope! Be it medication, therapy or a good support system there are people ready to help. Taking care of your mental health is just as important as brushing your teeth, washing your hands and putting on sunscreen. Our bodies get sick and we care for them - do the same for your brain!
I have been getting into a new obsession lately. I absolutely love history and learning about the past. I finally decided to start learning about my family tree. For someone like me it has been absolutely exciting to see all the names of the people who have come before me. I've learned a lot about who I am and where I come from.
3 or 4 year old me with my great-grandma Albertine
One of the most interesting things I have learned is that my ancestors and both my dad's side and my mom's side were mostly born in Canada. I found relatives on both sides that can be traced back to being born in France before 1633. My ancestors were some of the early settlers in "New France" -what we now call Canada. I knew my background was French I just had no idea how French!
Baby me with my dad and his grandma Lillian
My dad's side of the family is about four generations in the USA and then mostly in Canada. I also learned one of my great grandmothers had 18 kids! That poor woman. Sadly she passed a few months after I was born. I have a picture with her. My mother is a first-generation American and her parents were both born in Canada. They later moved to the USA after they married and my mom and her brother were born in the States.
My uncle and my dad with my great-grandma Agnes
I've been using a family history app with great success. They have scanned in documents available to view on the site for some people. I saw scan of my great-grandmother Agnes's birth certificate. That was amazing. She passed away in 2010. I still miss her but I'm enjoying learning more about her.
My husband's grandma Nicolina on the far left
As I've been delving into my family's background I decided to look into my husband's at the same time. His background is a mix of Italian, Polish, the British isles and a lot more! I have taken the time to sit with his grandmother and go over there family tree together. It was so much fun chatting with her about her memories of her parents and grandparents. Since I've been delving into family history I've been privileged to see old photos.
Nicolina
Delving into all of this family stories inspired another idea. We live relatively close to my husband's living grandmother and grandfather. This has created an opportunity to start visiting them and filming interviews with them. His grandmother is about 86 years old. She loves to talk and has so many stories to tell. It is slow going process to edit everything together but I'm enjoying the work. It will take a while but I hope to eventually have some clips to share with you all. I would like to make it into a "documentary" of sorts for the family
My great grandparents Wilfred and Rosa
All the information I'm learning, and all the stories are a bit overwhelming. But I'm so happy to be doing this. When I talk to my grandparents about what I've learned and names of people in locations they were living in their faces just light up! My grandmother told me she was waiting for one of the grandkids to start looking into the family tree for her.
This gorgeous blue butterfly is known as the Brenton Blue.
They are native to South Africa and are sadly a critically endangered species.
The species were actually thought to have completely died out in the 1980s, but a small colony was located in 1991 within the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa
The outer wings of a Brenton Blue.
I think this flowering plant is a trumpet vine.
A few Longwing butterflies. These butterflies are distributed throughout South America and the southern United States. These little guys have the remarkable ability to feed on pollen and through a biological process turn that pollen into a cyanide poison.
This bright colored insect is a Malaysian stick insect, officially known as the Malaysian Jungle Nymph. The bright colors indicate that this one is a female. Her name is Lola!
This is a Senegal Parrot. They can be found in West Africa and are a popular pet. This little guy in particular was adopted from a pet rescue by the Conservatory.
I love the clash of these bright orchids against the duller colors of this Owl Butterfly. I think the patterns on the wings are gorgeous!
A beautiful male Cairns Birdwing. These guys can sport a wing size of up to 4.9 inches while females get up to 5.9 inches.
These beauties are native to Australia
They love to hang out in wet tropical areas and near the coastline, feeding from Hibiscus flowers.
These butterflies do not have to worry too much about being eaten because as a larvae they feed on bitterwort. This makes the adult butterfly not palatable.
These butterflies were quite abundant at the conservatory so I was able to capture many photos
A Dwarf Crow butterfly. Under sunlight these butterflies have a purple iridescence to their wings
With a diet consisting of nectar, rotting fruit, dead animals, and bat dung, this butterfly is pretty much a stray dog that'll eat anything in the butterfly family!
A Blue-tongued Skink. I believe this lizard was also adopted from a rescue. Common in Australia, these reptiles have vibrant blue tongues and are nicknamed "Blueys" down under.
Another member of the Longwing family
Longwings have an unusually long lifespan if raised in captivity due to an abundance of food and the safety of being able to sip nectar and eat pollen in safety.
Longwings are also known for sleeping together, sometimes roosting along an entire branch all in a row. It can take about an hour for a group to settle down and rest together.
The appropriately named "Barber's Brush" tree blossom
A Malabar Tree Nymph. These guys can be found in parts of India. They have a very fluttery and weak flight pattern and tend to glide around.
A stunning True Cattleheart. The white patch on the wing seems to indicate that this one is female.
They can be found throughout the Americas
More Longwings! The striped one is known as a Zebra Lonwing and the other with the visible flash of blue is a Sarah Longwing
Another Sarah Longwing towards the right.
A Glasswing
I hope you all enjoyed these photos and the little splashes of info I learned about them. Identifying the butterflies in the pictures is what took me so long to post them!I probably spent about 6 hours in total editing and another two hours just trying to identify them!
Which butterfly doyou like the most from my photos? As gorgeous as the Brenton Blue is I think the Longwings are just too fascinating not to love!
We stayed in a hotel near by the conservatory. The surrounding towns had beautiful buildings like this church.
We had a wonderful time at the conservatory! I didn't realize it was going to be an indoor greenhouse. I had been to a small butterfly garden as a little girl but it was all outdoors
Considering that there was a major thunderstorm while we were in the greenhouse I'm glad it was indoors.
Most of the building was filled to the brim with plant life. This was the entrance area
Before we went to the greenhouse we went through a separate little area with an assortment of bugs, amphibians, and reptiles with educational displays on the wall.
A display about the differences between butterflies and moths
I was really excited to see some poison dart frogs. They may not look small in these pictures but they definitely are!
I think this is a type of gecko. He seemed to be very content to stick to the glass.
We were able to see little fringes on his toes that allows him to stick to glass.
I believe this is a nymph / jungle nymph. These are actually quite large bugs. They kind of look like they might be related to mantis?
This lovely terrifying pile of bugs are also types of nymphs
This aquarium was filled with walking stick bugs! I counted at least six. But I am definitely off on my count because these little guys hide so well.
There was an aquarium full of these little butterflies known as long wings in the exhibit room. These butterflies are able to collect pollen and become poisonous because of the pollen. Essentially these butterflies are little containers of cyanide poison.
This is an aquarium filled with different types of roaches.
I'll spare you pictures but this yellow translucent one was kind of pretty
An adorable leaf bug! I like how it looks like it's been chewed on. Natural camouflage at work
One of the many framed displays of butterflies.
I really like the bright blue one on the right side of the picture.
Walking into the green house was amazing
It was like stepping into another world. You could not walk through the garden without having a few butterflies brush past you.
This is a zebra longwing. And yes they're related to those cyanide butterflies
A staff member at the conservatory was walking around with a jungle nymph on her arm.
Her name is Lola and she's a beauty!
Look at this beautiful plant!
A female Cairns Birdwing
The Cairns Birdwing butterflies were very calm. This one is a male.
You could get really close to them. Made for some nice photographic opportunities!
In the greenhouse there was a display of Chrysalis and Cocoons.
There were a few hatched butterflies and a moth in there.
We walked past it a few times and there seem to be another little butterfly or moth that had just hatched.
Another little zebra longwing.
A Brenton Blue.
It was hard to photograph these because their outer wing is very dull and easy to miss
It took me a while to realize that these dull colored butterflies were the Brenton Blues. After I made the connection I was able to wait for them to display their inner blue color.
Do you see that blue blur at the top of the picture? That's the same Brenton Blue They had places to go and butterflies to see.
A Brenton Blue eventually landed on me. I was very happy and I got to watch it clean it's little face.
An Indian leafwing.
When they close their wings the outer wing looks like a dead leaf.
A malachite butterfly decided Justin needed to be more cute
Besides butterflies there were all these adorable little button quails in the greenhouse. We had to be careful where we stepped because they were running here and there and in between the bushes
I was very excited to see a koi pond in the middle of the greenhouse. Koi are so beautiful. I think they are my favorite fish.
Throughout the greenhouse there are these feeder sticks with what looks like a type of sponge in them be butterflies would feed from the special sugar water.
Some Cairns Birdwings on a feeder
A stunning Owl Butterfly
Some more butterfly shots. I wasn't 100% satisfied with the quality of these photos.
Trying to identify the butterflies I saw has been a challenge. I have looked and looked for the name of this one but no luck. Do you know how many black and blue colored butterflies there are???? Too many to figure this one out.
An interesting pink plant.
A tortoise. Apparently most of the birds, reptiles and amphibians there are rescues. I think that is wonderful!
This big old boy is named Porkchop
This photo is fun there was a orange butterfly resting on a leaf and three other other butterflies fluttering around it. I'm guessing the resting one is a female and the other three were males. I love how their flight was caught in the picture.
My next post will feature the best photos I took with my camera! Soon I promise!!
