Butterflies and Sea Stars

This morning we both continued our training plan of long weekend runs of gradually increasing distance.  Martha's goal was seven miles, mine was eight, and we both accomplished what we set out to do, which is most of what running is about after all.

It was a cold 32 degrees, and the walkway was so frosty that I did not venture out on it until later in the day.  But the wind had died down and it turned out to be a perfect day for a long run.  I enjoy these easy-paced runs; the only objective is distance, so the pace was comfortable and there was plenty of time to look around.  Fort Macon was not very busy, except for a busload of young people from the Calvary Baptist Church in New Bern who arrived in the parking lot at the same time as I did.   They flew across the parking lot when they were released from the bus, as if they were race horses or greyhounds at the starting gate, and I could hear them squealing as they ran down the Elliot Coues Nature Trail on the sound side, delighted to simply be out of doors on this sparkling morning.

When I turned into the Bath House parking lot for a final loop on my return, something bright and orange flew right in front of me:  a butterfly.  And probably, as I learned later, a Gulf fritillary:

What an unexpected and beautiful sight to see, here in January, just a month and a day after Christmas; our first buterflies do not appear in Highlands until April or May.

While I was running on the road to Fort Macon, Martha (who had started a little later than I did) decided to return on the beach.  We never saw each other - I was probably in one of the parking lots - but she said it had been an absolutely beautiful run on the beach.  And she found something even rarer than my little fritillary - this Royal Sea Star, which had just washed up in the gently-breaking surf just a half-mile from the condo.

I did find a starfish (actually, a sea star, but of another species) in Duck several years ago, but nothing like this - the deep purple body, the delicate legs.

So:  "flutter-bys" and fallen sea stars, in here in broad daylight.  The treasures we find when we run along the roadways or on the beach out here in this beautiful place.