Reflections on the First Week of Summer

After a couple of hectic weeks, Wednesday was a slow-down day. In the morning, I settled into my Adirondack chair, tapped computer keys, and listened to the washing machine gurgle. A small gray moth clung to the inside of the sliding glass door. I opened the door half way and slid the screen over so the moth could fly outside. Abdomen hanging below its fluttering wings, it banged between the glass and screen. It didn't follow the fresh air out so I grabbed a pack of radish seeds off the coffee table, reached around the screen, and nudged its feet. With a couple of awkward lunges, it found the edge of the door and zoomed skyward only to be caught in the beak of a diving phoebe. Butterflies in the north garden fared better. The sweet, spicy fragrance of new milkweed flowers attracted a flock of Great Spangled Fritillaries. Bees, bugs, and one Comma butterfly gathered too. While others sipped nectar and ignored me clicking the camera, the Comma butterfly took a sunbath on a wide milkweed leaf–the third Comma sunbather I'd encountered in June. When the sun set, the quarter moon glowed over the south garden, and fireflies flashed.