I was so excited today when I discovered that a new butterfly species had come visiting the backyard. The Zebra Heliconian butterfly is strikingly beautiful.
Author: elauervose
Monarch Butterflies
For most of the summer, I only saw Gulf Fritillary butterflies flitting over my two passion flower vines and occasionally sipping nectar from the flowers I had planted. Then sometime in late September, I saw my first Monarch! It was utterly thrilling to see as many as three or four at a time nectaring on the Torch flowers and laying eggs all over the milkweed plants!
Leveling up in Scuba Diving
I got my Padi Advanced Open Water certification over the weekend! Overall, it was a great experience! I feel more confident in the water and I finally have over 30 dives! I've been trying to hit that goal for a while now and it's exciting to finally be able to check that off the list ... now I just need to move to South Florida.... But the MOST exciting thing I want to share here is that we finally brought our underwater camera with us scuba diving.
Snorkeling with Manatees at Crystal River
I've read about manatees before but never really knew much about them. They always seemed like such an exotic and bizarre animal - the kind you have to travel around the world to see. Now that we live in Florida, how could I possible not go swim with these amazing, gentle giants?
Gulf Fritillary Butterfly
I was so excited to be able to grow tropical plants when I moved to Florida and passion fruit vines were at the top of the list. I purchased a plant, a pot and some soil and got all set up with my new Passion Fruit plant... seconds later I had Gulf Fritillary butterflies laying eggs all over the plant.
Erica Lauer Vose 