"...flowering plants were revolutionary in their appearance on the earth
some two hundred million years ago,
are dominant on land from the arctic to the tropics,
and are crucial to our survival."
Since reading those lines in Rebecca Solnit's book, Orwell's Roses,
I haven't been able to look at a flower without a deep sense of wonder
and gratitude!
Without flowers and their seeds,
birds and humans would not have evolved.
Period!
Without flowers and their seeds,
birds and humans would disappear from the earth.
Amen!
Quote from Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit
Flowers from Baltimore and St. Augustine, Mums, Lilies, Hibiscus
©LaineQuinn 2022
Keep it Kind
and
Patient
and
Heartfelt
and
Simple
and
Sweet!
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.
Rabindranath Tagore
(Dragonflies too!)
Quotation is from the front of the book,"World of Wonders" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
I haven't read it yet, but soon will, there is time enough!
Merry Merry, Happy Happy!
"...when we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the universe."
John Muir
Quote from Brain Pickings on Sunday, by Maria Popova.
Butterflies from St. Augustine, Key West and Baltimore. © Laine Quinn
Social distancing not required...
Cat (DJ) and Armadillo, the Moon and Venus, Two Butterflies, Cat (Lucy) kisses Gator, Two Web-footed friends, Five Turtles! All Safe.
While burning a few things on the deck in the chiminnea,
I noticed these caterpillars munching away on the Butterfly Weed.
It was over a month ago. There were about 10 or 12 of them, and they decimated that plant.
Then yesterday,
while leaning over the rail to reach a hanging pot I spied this little one in the same area.
She is no bigger than the joint of my thumb.
Will she emerge from her cocoon?
We will have to wait and see.
I brought her indoors, as the temperature was dropping.
There is so much hidden in plain sight that we never even notice.
It was chance that led me to the caterpillars and the butterfly.
Look at the little bugs on the left.
I didn't even see them until I blew the photo up!
Garden Joy! February in Florida, annuals to plant!
©2020 Laine Quinn
HELP!
What if, when chemical companies came up with the idea
to spray food crops with the deadly compounds
that were developed in wartime,
someone very important had said,
"This is a really bad idea."
OR
What if, 20 or 30 years later, when a bright caring poet/scientist
saw the effects of these deadly poisons first hand
and sounded the alarm, that birds were dying, bees and butterflies too.
And the chemical big wigs had said,
"Oh my, this is not what we had intended.
We can do better than this."
If either one of those things had happened,
we would have vegetables and fruits
that actually tasted like something, instead of tasting like nothing.
And the bees and butterflies wouldn't be on the edge of extinction.
The Earth would be healthier and her people and their children.
Silent Spring was published in 1962, by Rachel Carson who died of breast cancer 2 years later, in 1964.
"Though much is taken, much remains and much returns." John Elder quoting Wordsworth with an addition, in Courage for the Earth, Celebrating the life and writings of Rachel Carson.
Things we can do...feed the birds, and plant flowers that attract bees and butterflies and grow our own veggies!!!! And buy organic when we can afford to.
A fallen blossom
Is coming back to the branch.
Look, a butterfly!
by Moritake (1473-1549)
Happy Earth Day!!!
Of course, everyday is Earth Day!
And since April is National Poetry Month,
here is a Haiku from a book I have had with me all of my adult life,
One Hundred Famous Haiku
Selected and translated into English by
Daniel C. Buchanan
It is divided by season.
This is one for Spring.
Butterfly shot at the Key West Butterfly And Nature Conservancy, © Laine Quinn 2008.
Lucky shot!
or
The Visitor.
I thought this might be the flower of the eggplant, because of the color,
but it turned out to be a Pipe Vine,
which is host to a certain caterpillar,
which turns into a beautiful
I will let you know if we get the butterflies!
After last night's rain, the larger caterpillars are missing in action.
But there are still some little ones.
I see you!
Butterfly in Asters, one Autumn Day.
Sitting in the hammock isn't usually considered hazardous duty,
but there is no reason to take needless chances.
So, out comes the camera and off you go onto the nearest branch.
Oh, you don't like that one? Then the second choice - go!
(Must be related to cats.)
(Might be going to a beach fire, and bringing the marshmallows.)
No, she hasn't got a name!
Reprinted from Laine's Blog, April 2012.
What do we look like to the butterfly -
clumsy, mobile trees with no nectar to recommend us?
If butterflies only live two weeks or so, and some trees live 300+ years,
then the span of one human life must look to the tree the way that the butterfly's life looks to us - brief!
So,
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?
Reprinted from Laine's Blog, November 2011.
Have you ever listened to someone's life story and thought,
this can't be true?
How could she have done all of those things in 55 years?
Well, wait until you are 60,
you realize that - yes -
it was all possible and true!
The butterfly lives for a very short time,
but we get to do a lot of lot of things
in our relatively short lives.
Pretty cool!
Butterfly shot at the Butterfly Exhibit in Key West by Paula Post and used without her permission!
(And my knee is much better today, thank you!)
Two Cardinals calling back and forth to one another in the woods today.
It's Springtime again.
A friend's Mom goes into Hospice.
A nephew's brand new baby girl arrives safely -
plump and happy!
As you get older, you see it more clearly.
(Breathe out.
Breathe in.)
The exchange of life.
In the few days that she lives in this garden,
this magnificent butterfly gives it her all.
Beauty is as beauty does.
Kite surfers at the end of a cloudy windy day in St. Augustine.
From a distance, the kite looks like a giant butterfly.
Now that would be interesting...
giant gentle things flying among us!
St. Augustine Beach, almost Autumn!
Once upon a time there was a lovely aster.
This aster was enjoying the last light of an autumn evening in Baltimore,
when suddenly it was surrounded by butterflies.
They were the most unusual butterflies that this aster had ever seen,
and quite frankly they took her breath away!
The End
The dance of life.
The rhythm of the seasons.
Summer winding down.
Sitting in the hammock isn't usually considered hazardous duty,
but there is no reason to take needless chances.
So, out comes the camera and off you go onto the nearest branch.
Oh, you don't like that one? Then the second choice - go!
(Must be related to cats.)
(Might be going to a beach fire, and bringing the marshmallows.)
No, she hasn't got a name!
Beautiful hammock found at Southern Lights Candle Shop in St. Augustine, Florida.
What do we look like to the butterfly -
clumsy, mobile trees with no nectar to recommend us?
If butterflies only live two weeks or so, and some trees live 300+ years,
then the span of one human life must look to the tree the way that the butterfly's life looks to us - brief!
So,
What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it's all about?