Yesterday, around lunch time, I was given a gift. I looked out the window and there it was. I have been hoping for gifts like this all summer.
I believe its name is Painted Lady butterfly. (Update: it is an American Lady according to Rick at Butterfly Guides)
As I was quietly photographing, it turned around and looked at me.
I'd forgotten about taking these pictures until this evening. Today was window washing day. Jennifer Jewel of Cultivating Place podcast kept me company. Best to wash windows in good company. She was interviewing a Russian born gardener who was researching plants of the steppes. Our world will be in need of those plants in new places as it heats up.
After supper, there was "that light", the one that photographers and artists look for. It was rimming the maple in the front yard. I stepped out the back door, fully intending to take a picture of that front yard maple before the light changed. And, then.... another gift ..... a double rainbow in the back yard.
Then, it slowly turned around and showed me its side view. Looking through the viewfinder, I had no idea what I was seeing.
Now I know.
It stuck its tongue out at me.
If the age of the Earth were a calendar year
and today were a breath before midnight on New Year's Eve,
we showed up a scant fifteen minutes ago,
and all of recorded history has blinked by in the last sixty seconds.
Luckily for us, our planet-mates--
the fantastic meshwork of plants, animals, and microbes--
have been patiently perfecting their wares since March,
an incredible 3.8 billion years since the first bacteria.
...After 3.8 billion years of research and development,
failures are fossils,
and what surrounds us is the secret to survival.
Janine M. Benyus
The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
the less taste we shall have for destruction.
Rachel Carson
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