The Zebra Longwing butterfly has been most enjoyed in our garden this year. This is what I have learned about it: it is one of only a few types of butterflies known to feed on pollen (and nectar.) It can live up to six months whereas most butterflies only live up to one month. It is the only known butterfly to establish colonies. Found on the tips of plants, it will return to the same spot every night. I read this sentence..." It is possible to pick it off its perch and return it later to the same spot." That made me think of the song "Beautiful Dreamer".
First, let me find a video of it for you...
Isn't that a pretty song? Now the video I have for you is Clint Walker singing it...it must be from his TV show from the 1960's, "Cheyenne". Anybody else remember that? Wasn't he good looking? He was more known as an actor but he is in tune and I liked this video much better than the other more polished singers who had done this song.
"Beautiful Dreamer" was written by Stephen Foster. (1826-1864.)
He wrote more than 200 songs! You might also know "Oh Susanna", "Camptown Races" and "Jeannie With The Light Brown Hair".
You can see from the dates above that he only lived to be 37. It is possible that he committed suicide. Whether by his own hand or not, it is sad to know that he died so very young. At the time of his death, he had a bit of paper in his wallet with these words written on it:
"Dear friends and gentle hearts".
Doesn't that make you wish that he could have lived longer and written more songs?
"Beautiful Dreamer" was published after his death so he would never know how popular it became.
Many of his songs were used in the early days of film making as the copyright would have expired on them and therefore no monies would have to paid to anyone.
(The song is most familiar to me from the Loony Tunes cartoons. Can't you just hear Bugs Bunny singing it? Or is that just me?)
Well, my dear friends and gentle hearts, I do hope that you are all doing well these days. These are trying times but we must press on!
Please let me know how you are all doing!
Take care.
This photo is from Sept. 23 at Arabia Mountain! No daisies were hurt in the making of this photo! (Please note...do not step on any daisies or into any of the sandy solution pits on the mountains. There are precious plants that are depending on this! Walk only on bare rock, please. Stay on the GRAY!)
P L E A S E !
Arabia Mountain is lovely garbed in masses of yellow daisies, especially with you among them, Kay! I hope everyone is staying on the gray. My Grandmother MacBeath loved Stephen Foster's songs, and she played all the songs you referenced on her piano ~ sang the words too. I didn't realized that he had died so young. When I was young tv was a hit or miss thing. I saw Cheyenne a few times. What I remember is "Have Gun Will Travel." I haven't seen a lot of butterflies this summer, so thanks for sharing your beautiful Zebra Longwing. Stay healthy and happy!
ReplyDeleteHey Louise! Lovely to see your comment! You would love these wildflowers but I also must tell you that you would love Arabia Mountain, I think I told you before that they believe that is 450 MILLION years old! It is the oldest of the monadnocks in this area. It should be treated with more respect!
DeleteListen, if you ever want to know any TV shows from the 1960's, just ask me, I am THE expert! LOL! I think I watched all those Westerns on TV! Happy to share a butterfly with you. Take care of yourself out there in Colorado! :-)
I love Beautiful Dreamer, and even sang it on stage with a choral group, dressed in Southern costumes back in my youth! Dad loved Stephen Foster, and although many songs are no longer PC, they had great tunes and were extremely popular. You look so cute sitting among the daisies!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, a great many of them are not used now due to the PC but the music is what I think is very good, one can always change the lyrics! :-)
DeleteAnd my husband can do magic with the camera if he makes me look good! I sure was happy to be amongst them.
Hello. This butterfly enjoys a day in autumn.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, it is still like summer here in Georgia. We won't have really cold weather until November! (Now, just watch...since I typed that, a cold front will come in October and make a liar out of me!)
DeleteLovely vid - I didn't recall that Clint Walker had such a nice singing voice. And, yes - a real cutie.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea that Clint Walker could sing either! There were other singers with that song but that is the one I chose to go on this post. Here is what I learned about Clint Walker...He was 6 feet and 6 inches tall with a 32 inch waist and a 48 inch chest. (MAN!) He had an accident in 1971. While on a ski vacation, he fell off a ski lift and a ski pole went through his heart. At the hospital, he was pronounced dead until the doctor detected signs of life. Surgery was performed and he survived. (Anybody else remember he was in "The Dirty Dozen"?)
DeleteHe was a pilot. He also wrote (with another author) the book, "Yaqui Gold". (Look it up, you can find it paperback but it is a lot of money!!)
Really a pretty interesting fellow! And I only learned about his life when I was looking for a video of this song!
Sadly, he died in 2018 just nine days before his 91st birthday.
Goodness me, I just found a documentary. The ski accident is at 16:21. (He did not fall off a ski lift, he was skiing and his ski poles were too short for him, one of them went through his heart. Wow, that description of him being saved at the hospital...it is amazing!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxN1aq2-Dwc That has lots of ads in it but it is well worth watching!!
DeleteButterflies are such a cheery sight. Does make one think of beautiful dreams and all things nice. Stephen Foster's music lives on and is an important part of our history too. Thanks for sharing !
ReplyDeleteThank you! I can't tell you how nice it has been for us to see all these butterflies outside our front and back doors. Our Mexican sunflowers are like butterfly magnets!!
Delete"Beautiful Dreamer" is indeed a beautiful song!
ReplyDeleteIt really is, isn't it? I looked it up to see if I was thinking correctly about Bugs Bunny singing it, and sure enough, you know I found a clip of him doing so!
DeleteThe very idea that someone would walk on the flowers makes me cringe. Dear hearts and gentle friends made me think of Dear Hearts and Gentle People. Bob Hilliard was a brilliant lyricist. He wrote so many songs that we recognize today.
ReplyDeleteActually, it is a problem for Arabia Mountain. I might have to expand on that theme on a post in the future!
DeleteYES! Bob Hilliard did write the song "Dear Hearts and Gentle People" but of course, he had to have gotten the idea from those last words of Stephen Foster! That is what great songwriting is all about! Let me speak for Stephen Foster and say that I think he would have liked it. You know how much I think of songwriters, music and lyrics!
Hi Kay, My daughter took me to a butterfly house near her. That is the only place I have seen the zebra butterfly. I think all butterflies should live longer so we could enjoy their beauty longer. Blessings, stay safe, xoxo, Susie
ReplyDeleteAh well, they might not live that long but as long as we don't kill off the plants they need to leave their eggs, then we should always have butterflies. Hopefully!
DeleteBlessings on you, my friend! xxxx
A few years ago i got to visit "My Old Kentucky Home". Stephen Foster's life story is a bit sad.
ReplyDeleteClint Walker was very handsome and had a pleasant enough voice. As you say, he could carry a tune, which is more than i can say for myself.
The gentleman who hires me to work in his garden each Friday (i'm terrible with plants but he uses my plant killing skills to go after the weeds) has milkweed, and i love seeing the butterflies it draws each year.
Hope you have a blessed and beautiful weekend!
I think I did a post about milkweed once, remember I told you that it was used for lifejackets in WW2? (It was the milkweed fluff.) Amazing story!
DeleteI really didn't know that much about Clint Walker. (Read my reply to Pam Nash above.) Now, I have to go and hear him sing, "I Believe". One review I read said it was very good!
All songs were well known to me in my youth (and still are, of course).
ReplyDeleteHey Graham! So good to see your comment here!
DeleteSongs pop into my head all day long but I don't always know a great detail about them but I try to find out! :-)
You have some lovely butterflies over there. Sad how many artists and entertainment types die young despite having success and money. Just watched the documentary McQueen last night about the UK fashion designer. Very talented, hugely successful, yet committed suicide at just 40. Hank Williams as well.Only 29. And Robert E Howard of Cross Plains, Texas, the creator of Conan the Barbarian novels. Still have his books bought in the 1970s.
ReplyDeleteThe Zebra longwing butterfly is the state butterfly of Florida but the ones we have here in our garden in Georgia seem quite at home!
DeleteYes, it is sad to learn of those who die so young. You still have your books from the 1970's? I think I still have a Star Trek book from then, and also, maybe some of my Ray Bradbury books! I was a big SCI FI reader at one time. All my fiction reading was in my teens and 20's, it has been all non fiction since then, almost!
What a beautiful butterfly! Alas, I have never seen one this far north which doesn't mean they cannot get this far north. Beautiful dreamer was a song I learned when I was taking piano lessons. And I remember my teacher telling me that Foster's wife was his beautiful dreamer and that she was an alcoholic. I will have to read more about him...It's been more than fifty years since I heard that. And may your beautiful yellow daisies at Arabia mountain be safe and flourish forever.
ReplyDeleteHe did seem to have a very sad life and yes, that song was about his wife.
DeleteYou would love the yellow daisies at Arabia Mountain! If you saw them, you would paint them!!
I may be confusing this with "I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair" though I could easily imagine both being about his wife.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think they were both about his wife. His wife's name was Jane, I think, but you know, poetic license! :-)
DeleteLovely picture of you among the yellow daisies!
ReplyDeleteButterflies live only about a month? I didn‘t know that, and some must obviously live longer in order to survive winter and reproduce, or there would not be any around anymore.
Summer is well and truly over, as befits the end of September. After enjoying two weeks off (and all of it with O.K.), I find it difficult to imagine work starts again tomorrow morning - and it will be an almost non-stop haul until Christmas.
Thanks! I was so happy to pose with those flowers!
DeleteSome butterflies do live longer, the Monarch butterfly will live up to 6 months, I think I have read, they have to make their incredible journey all the way to Mexico! The average life span of a butterfly is 2 weeks. Some only live a day or two. Makes you see why they are in such a hurry to get to those flowers, doesn't it?
It is still quite warm here. I had a sweater in that photo but I should have had a t shirt on, even hotter going up that mountain! Not like your long walks but I think that was a 4 mile walk that day, after I had gotten off work!
Keep up your great walks, Meike! xx
That zebra butterfly is awesome. So beautiful. Love your photo of the daisies and of course of you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, you are too kind! I was so very happy to sit there for just a moment and to have all those daisies around me! The rock makes a kind of sofa shape, a very hard sofa but fine for a sweet rest for a brief time!
DeleteI think you have the zebra butterfly in Hawaii. You will have to tell me if you ever see it!
That is a very nice picture of you amongst the daisies, and what a fabulous butterfly that is.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
Thank you, Jan. All the best to you too! Take care. x
DeleteYep! I remember "Cheyenne". My favourite western TV series of the early Sixties was "Wanted Dead or Alive", starring Steve McQueen as Josh Randall.
ReplyDeleteStephen Foster songs played such a role in my childhood. We were taught them at school.
I love daisies.
Take good care, Kay...I hope all is well with you and your family. :)
I loved all those Westerns! I am remembering BRONCO and SUGARFOOT!
ReplyDeleteOf course, you would know the Stephen Foster songs, your mother would have played them too, I am sure!
And I know I called them daisies but they are really related to the sunflower family, they are truly special to this area!
Hope all is well with you too, Lee! x
Gosh! I do remember Clint Walker. I didn’t realize he had such a beautiful voice. I must have watched Cheyenne.
ReplyDeleteI was most pleased to find this video of Clint Walker singing! EAsy on the eyes too! xx
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