As a child I read every fairy tale book in the Kingston Public Library of the 1960’s. My belief in wondrous magical creatures and the world they inhabited eroded at about the same time as I ran out of fairy tale books in the library. It took a little longer to lose the belief in my ability to connect with wildlife.
At a point I didn’t notice I began reading about people’s experiences with nature and her residents and wishing that such were my own experiences. It was a red tailed hawk feather that reminded me that I could and did choose to reconnect. That’s another story that I need mention only because without that red tailed hawk feather giveaway I wouldn’t have believed the butterfly.
The joys of gardening are myriad. They give reason to work up the occasional sweat. They are there when you finish and need to relax and enjoy the fruits of your labor. It was dusk at the end of May on a trip into the garden that I found a butterfly hitch hiker roosting in a garden ornament…a bright yellow pop/beer holder that’s never held a drink. I hustled to the house to grab the digital camera to capture the moment before it was over. After taking a few shots, I moved the drink holder from a standing position, to a laying position in the garden…just in case of what I don’t know. The butterfly was not disturbed, the night was cooling and sleep called me.
I remembered that in the days previous I had handled swallowtails on numerous occasions. I had been called to go out to the new greenhouse at the oddest moments, without real reason. Every time I found a swallowtail butterfly in distress, dehydrating quickly by beating itself against the ceiling rafters. With a combination of crooning my good will for them and a chair to stand on to reach them, I’d catch them to set back outside with a warning about the danger to pass along to their fellows.
Next morning, like most beauty spring mornings, I took coffee outside to sit and admire the garden, checking the garden ornament on the way. What a joy to find the butterfly still in the garden ornament. I spent an hour taking pictures of the Swallowtail strutting her stuff…closed wing shots, open wing, sideways, everything but upside down. I felt like paparazzi favored with a dream appointment to shoot a long cherished ideal subject. Some fifty pictures later (it’s a digital) I knew that I had captured a Swallowtail giveaway of a lifetime in recognition of my service to their kind.
May 2004
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