The front and back porches are too hot to sit on right now and I want to be outside while reading and taking notes. The temperature is 90 + or - a degree or two. I moved one of the cushiony chairs and side tables from the back porch out to a shady spot on the grass overlooking the hummingbird feeder, butterfly bush and perennial garden. Turning my head to the right, I can glance out over the meadow and see the pond. A slight turn to the left and I can see what is going on at the bird feeders.
There is a lovely breeze that cools the skin and sends the luscious fragrances of lily, buddleia and greenery past my nostrils. Yellow tiger swallowtails, a black swallowtail, monarchs, cabbage whites, sulphurs, azures, and a variety of bees and wasps, including the large blue ones, are flying about and feeding on the nectar of the catmints, butterfly weed, buddleia, cosmos and other flowers in the garden, as well as on the white clover blossoms in the lawn.
The neighborhood is quiet except for the passing cars. No lawn mowers or weed wackers today. No radios or people swimming and shouting in the pool across the street or the houses behind the woods. No children shouting, no dogs barking. Quite nice for meditating and watching the butterflies silently flit about.
I borrowed some books from the library yesterday that I hope will help to identify all of the varieties of pollinators I encounter in the garden and also learn which host plants are needed to keep them around year after year.
The hummingbird just came to the feeder. This is the closest I've been able to see it. I hope she comes back and isn't startled by movement from me. I'd like to put the binoculars up to my eyes to get an even closer look, but that may frighten her away.
