You know, purple coneflower:
Echinacea, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
I have been working this week on a book about a man I admire a great deal. Jean Henri Fabre was humble and patient and had a great passion for the natural world, most especially for insects. He spent a good deal of his life watching bugs in his backyard. And when I say watching bugs, I mean he lay down in the sand and admired dung beetles as they worked … for hours. Sometimes he would hire a neighbor child to hold a shade umbrella over him, other times he was so lost in the dung beetles that he suffered heat stroke. His neighbors thought he was a bit odd.
What has this got to do with Echinacea?
Well, there happens to be a goodly amount of Echinacea in my yard. The plants are in full bloom now, and as I passed them on the way to the mailbox this afternoon I noticed that there was an awful lot going on in that purple patch of Heaven. Thinking of Henri, I waded on in…
tiger swallowtail, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
monarch, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
out-of-focus spicebush swallowtail, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
anyone?, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
japanese beetle, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
some sort of wasp, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
bumblebee, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
honey bee, © 2008 Loree Griffin Burns
These are only the insects that I managed to catch on film. There were at least two other species of butterfly, several types of bee, and all sorts of flying creatures that buzzed through but didn’t bother to stop. Can someone tell me how it is that I have passed this garden in high summer for three years running and never once stopped to fully appreciate this wonderful chaos?
Who cares what the neighbors think; I’m going back in tomorrow. Anyone want to come and hold the umbrella?