Monday, July 30, 2007

Nature Next Door

The press of obligations has smooshed blogging off to the side in recent weeks; here's my attempt to loosen up and post just because something neat happens, even though small.

Case in point: my next-door neighbors have kindly done a wonderful job of landscaping around their town house's postage stamp back yard. This includes a butterfly bush that is easily 10' tall and that lives up to its name. A few days ago it was a particularly beautiful warm, non-humid summer's day. Looking out the window beyond my desk I kept seeing drifting waves of butterflies headed next door. So for a few moments I put the computer on standby and took my camera out for some fresh air.

We were obviously no threat to the beautiful yellow and black butterflies since they posed nicely before drifting away. I was amazed at how many of them had ragged wings. Some were missing whole chunks but it didn't keep them from flying and feeding on the brilliant purple flowers. After about 10 minutes of butterfly therapy the day went much better.