Farfalle

We have the luxury of living in the same town that's home to the Chicago Botanic Garden. They do a very nice job in the garden in all seasons, although it of course is more colorful and flowerful in spring and summertime. Fall brings a more melancholic vibe, with falling leaves and many shades of yellow and brown replacing the bountiful colors of summer.

And winter....... is just winter. The garden is open year round, but we actually never visited in wintertime. So who knows, perhaps it is wonderful in winter as well. But winter is very, very far away with the continuing warm and sunny weather in our area. We headed out for another visit to the Garden, actually deciding against riding our bikes this time because it was once more too hot to arrive in presentable condition if not inside an air-conditioned car.

As an additional crowd pleaser they have a temporary butterfly exhibit inside a big netted dome, with a hatching station where you could see the newborns crawling out of their cocoons and unfolding their wings - very cool. The tent was loaded with many of these beautiful creatures, and one was fancying Gabri's dress from the moment she walked in until the very end, where each visitor needed to do a mirror check for any residents piggyback riding to their freedom.

Although a very artificial surroundings, it was kind of magical to see so many farfalle flittering close by. In case you didn't know, 'farfalle' is Italian for butterfly (so the names the Italians came up with for different shapes of pasta are usually not too crazy eccentric), and I just learned that the Dutch word for butterfly - 'vlinder' - actually is related to the English 'flitter'. In contrast, even though the 'fly' part is pretty self-explanatory, no one knows where the 'butter' in the English 'butterfly' comes from. Either way, definitely worth a visit.