Greetings & Salutations Fellow Lepidopterans,

As February is upon us, we are stirring to get out amongst the nature that revives us physically, butterflies that refresh the soul, plants and flowers that heal the long hard winter. So far 2022 has been another hard one for me. The Virus is still wreaking its own unique hazard. The snow has stuck around for far, far too long. It has prevented us from getting out and about. Gone was a long planned winter trip to Tucson to visit my sister and canceled was the Christmas trip to Phoenix to visit my brother and his family.

But now, even with six inches of snow on the ground in Klickitat, the crocuses are sticking their heads up out of the snow, reminding me to plant more of them next year. I look forward to my flower, shrub and tree garden blossoming forth; bringing eternal hope for life reborn and nature’s little shining ornaments that we call butterflies. Soon, I shall see visiting Orange-Tips, Cabbage Whites, Blues and Coppers. There is no other group of animals & insects that we distinguish and name by their graceful and beautiful coloration.

There are even signs that we are finally breaking out of the Covid Virus Pandemic that has kept us from Winter Time intermingling and celebrations. We still need to wait and see whether there will be yet another variant that deters us from gathering in groups with nets and cameras, hugs and smiles, and guide books in hand. It is my hope that we can renew field trips and our study weekend that we all enjoy so much when our pace of life allows us the time to get out.

This winter, I turned 70 years old. That is a milestone that many of us did not envision ourselves ever reaching. But somehow I muddled my way through it. I almost preserved enough body function and miraculously have set money aside to do the things I want to do. I hope to backpack into true wilderness and do butterfly surveys where I had by- passed in my earlier years.

I hope to travel overseas and revisit Mt. Parnassus in Greece – where we take the name of one of my favorite butterfly groups. I hope to get out and revisit some old haunts like the Beartooth Plateau of Wyoming and Montana, the LaSal Mountains of SE Utah, the Uintas Range in NE Utah, and the Steen’s Mountain in SE Oregon. This is an ambitious list admittedly, but after the last couple of years, I’m ready.

I am ready to end diapause and eclose anew. 

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