Firstly, assuming that you are vaguely interested in my sleeping arrangements last night, I must tell you that Lorelle was rather a good sleeping companion (you will perhaps be aware that owing to the arrival of Carlo, the good-looking Spanish/Italian German, we girls had to resort to sharing a double bed). Happily, Lorelle neither snores nor has she restless leg syndrome, or any other condition that would make sleeping with her anything but dreamy. She didn’t suck, puff, or grind her teeth; she didn’t hug me, kick me, toss and turn wildly or hog the cover (mind you, we hardly needed a coverlet because we both wore more clothes than usual). When we were hot Lorelle and I stuck out a leg apiece from our respective sides of the bed; and when we were cold we curled, foetus-like, facing     opposite ways.

Despite going to bed late after two exciting games of Yahtzee (Lorelle won the first and I won the second – beginner’s luck) I was awake even before my alarm; at six fifty-five, the sun was shining and I couldn’t resist a dip in the pool (a mermaid’s pleasure at any hour of the day) – after two days of rain, resulting in twenty-four hours of abstinence from one of the most divine pastimes, the swim was heavenly. And then I packed my little bags and put them in the car…

My pad for the Easter long weekend is rather swish, although it doesn’t have a pool; at least, not big enough to swim in… but it is a nice hot spa (let it rain, I don’t care!). Janine and Brad are going up north to sugar cane country and I have the whole house to myself.

“I want you to eat everything in the fridge,” said Janine, “and anything in the cupboards and freezer.”

Funny she should say that because I was feeling quite hungry. They departed at nine thirty-eight and I had my lunch at nine forty-five or there abouts.

Am I lonely? Well, yes I am a tad lonely at present but in a few minutes I shall take beautiful Bella – the loveliest golden retriever (read my book!) – out for a walk; and later, I’ll go for a longer walk on my own because I’m younger (in relative terms) and fitter than Bella.

What did I mean by my title? You see, I was putting things away in my plush bedroom when I noticed something small, golden and shiny under one of the pillows, then another one – a flash a gold between the outer two pillows; and when I turned my eyes to the bedside table I saw a larger elliptical shape, this time wrapped in silver paper. There were three chocolate Easter eggs for me to discover and now there are two. My just dessert! (Not deserts – we’ve had too much rain!)

As I came off the beach on my way back to Lorelle’s place this morning I met an American couple and, while we chatted about the beauty of the area, the husband drew our attention to the sky.

“Just look at those butterflies!” he said, amazed.

Sure enough the air was full of blue and black butterflies coming along Pacific Boulevard then veering off over the rooftops. The couple had to go home to Budderim but I stayed for another ten to fifteen minutes watching the thousands – perhaps hundreds of thousands – flying in a continuous flow along the same route. I went over to the shade of a driveway in order to get a better spot for photography, although I doubted if my little mobile camera would have enough pixels to make sense of the butterflies in flight. Whilst I was stood there the owner of the house came outside with a wheelbarrow.

“I hope you don’t mind,” I said, “but I stopped here to take photos of the butterflies.”

“That’s quite alright,” he smiled. “There have been loads of them in the last two weeks!”

“Not like this for two weeks?” I asked incredulous.

“Not all the time, but they’ve been around in large numbers. I reckon they’ve just come out of church!” he joked.

Well it was Sunday morning! However (as I have discovered on the Internet), the blue tiger butterflies are migratory, but there’s no need for me to tell you about them – I’ll copy and paste the information for your interest….

Critters of Calamvale Creek, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Hello. I’m Belinda the blue tiger butterfly.

You are lucky to see me in Calamvale Creek in Brisbane, Australia. Blue tiger butterflies don’t often visit Brisbane, but when we do there are usually massive numbers of us travelling either south or north during our migration.

Where do I live?

I’m a tropical migratory butterfly, and generally live in northern Queensland. I have been south and have stopped off to check out Calamvale Creek on my way back north.

In a couple of weeks, large numbers of us will pass through the Sunshine Coast, and in May we will be passing Townsville as we follow the east coast.

In summer I like to visit creek areas near the coast, and in winter, when food plants for our larvae are in short supply, we often mass together in huge numbers in mangroves, gullies, or around shady moist creeks. We rest on stems, dead branches, and twigs, in shade near the ground. I love mangrove milkweed.

I like the warm tropical north of Queensland. A large number of us make our home in the rainforest patch of James Cook University. Our group often breaks up if there is any rain in the dry season, then we re-form when the habitat dries out.

Best time to see us

Thousands of us can cluster together on trees and vines, even out on the Barrier Reef islands, giving the vegetation a beautiful blue-black appearance.

You are more likely to see us during very hot summers or when there are very hot days, because we are not biologically suited to cold climates.

We occasionally reach Victoria, but never South Australia. A number of us were reported near Broken Hill in February and March of 1974 during an abnormally humid summer.

Poisonous plants are important to us

The whole life cycle of blue tiger butterflies revolves around poison to various degrees.

The milkweed plants we feed on contain poisons, but our larvae are able to absorb this and keep it in their bodies to protect them from being picked off by birds.

The poisons get passed on to the pupa and then to the adult butterflies.

Of course we don’t want to kill birds — we just want to make them sick so they won’t eat us. Once they’ve tasted us, they’ll never try it again. Some vomit almost immediately.

I do prefer certain types of plants, such as milkweed and milk vines, as Monarch butterflies do too. For my young caterpillars to feed on I like to find jungle vines from the family Asclepiadaceae.

Captain Cook’s butterfly

Captain James Cook reported seeing masses of blue tiger butterflies as he sailed up the coast of Queensland in 1770.

We still accumulate in that area — such as on Magnetic Island, Brampton Island, and Cape Cleveland.

We are also found throughout tropical south-east Asia, in the Philippines, and in Sri Lanka.

We may live for 5 months or more, and make a spectacular addition to any butterfly collection.

— Belinda the blue tiger butterfly

Actually, it wasn’t me who called out – it was Lorelle, one of my dearest and oldest friends (in terms of length of friendship rather than age – we’ve known each other since I was eleven and she was twelve); we were enjoying a “Sunset Cruise” on a boat – the Whale One – at Mooloolaba when she called out.

“Marina!” Lorelle hollered out into the darkness as our boat passed a private jetty. “She won’t hear,” she added.

We could see the lights on inside the house and a young child sat at a table.

“That’s little Jacob,” my friend informed, ” What a shame I couldn’t get Marina on her mobile – she could have come out and waved to us. Hey, want to call in for a quick visit and see her for a few minutes on the way home?”

“What fun!” Chris and I agreed. We thought my sister Mary would be thrilled to know that we had been to the house where she had house-sat only a matter of weeks ago when she was on holiday back in our Australian homeland.

Perhaps half an hour later we were greeted by Marina at her front door.

“I heard you call my name,” the beautiful blonde Russian laughed, “but I couldn’t see you and I wondered if it was meant for someone else who shares my name (she speaks excellent English after only two years in Australia!)”.

“And this is Jacob, Sally,” Lorelle introduced me to the gorgeous six-year-old.

“How are you Jacob?” I asked, shaking his little hand.

“I’m not Jacob – I’m Nick,” he said softly and we both laughed. “Want to see me do some exercises on those rings hanging from the ceiling?” he asked now that we were friends. (He, too, spoke excellent English!)

Lorelle, Chris and I had a wonderful time yesterday evening; first the perfect cruise (with live music, canapes and wine) on the canal as the sun went down, and then the unexpected visit… And now Chris and I are back at Roland’s house in beautiful Belivah and we’re about to go out for dinner at the Windaroo Tavern. Oh? Haven’t you been there? Well, you should go – they have a fantastic salad bar…