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Wednesday, August 17, 2016

How We Live Now

Almost every day it rains. When it does rain, Bow sometimes acts as if it is the end of the world. It pours and pours and the sky is dark, and everyone has to take cover, even the butterflies.




But Bow manages to stay high and dry, even when the ground is wet outside.




Sometimes, he achieves this goal by perching high on his bench. At other times he uses the swing to keep his feet out of the puddles.



Higher and higher he swings. 


Sometimes a rainbow appears in the sky when I go shopping for groceries in Licking.



After the rains we are often visited by the coquettish orange-spotted purple butterfly. "Catch me if you can!" she cries and leads me on a merry chase. I finally decided to put her dance to the music of the Habanera.


The orange-spotted purple sticks so close to us that one time Leo was actually able to sniff at it.


Apparently, it did not smell all that interesting, as Leo let it go on with its business undeterred after a a single sniff. Other butterflies seem to want to get close to us. One day I found an eastern Tiger Swallowtail trapped in the garage.



It kept looking  longingly out at the green back yard, until I finally let it out. 


So what are these butterflies trying to tell Bow and me? I compiled a video of all my recent EasternTiger Swallowtail encounters into a video. Can you see Bow in the outerpen at the very end, when the butterfly flies out?


Are the butterflies trying to trap me?  Or do they think that I am trying to trap them?  Or are we all free spirits, striving to maintain our own independence, while engaging in fulfilling interactions?

Hard to say!

3 comments:

  1. With all the fires I wish we had more rain here, but not dry summers appear to be the new normal.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe you will have some rain in the winter, Julia. In Israel, for instance, when I lived there, rain in the summer was unheard of. People expected it to be cold, if it rained. Every region has its own climate.

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  2. Yes, we have always been dry, but even in the summer it would rain once or twice. We are just going through a prolonged dry cycle.

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