Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Painted Ladies and Purple Sage

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

There must have been at least thirty "ladies" dancing about in the clump of Balkan sage around a corner in the village this week. Beau and I stopped for a few minutes on the way home from our morning walk to watch them flutter exuberantly about, a perfect marriage of purple and orange.

Alas, it was a windy morning, and most of the images we captured were fuzzy - there was only a single acceptable capture in the several exposures taken. For all that, it was good fun to watch the Vanessas dancing about in the early breeze.

Village goldenrod thickets are in full bloom, and they are abuzz with rapturous bumbles, bees and wasps. So are the Michaelmas asters which are just coming into their own and filling the garden with dry sweetness. Could there be anything sweeter and more poignant than late summer nectar?

Late September conferences of orange, red, gold and purple are perhaps my favourite color combinations ever. Deciduous trees in the village are a riot of colour now, and morning walks take forever because we stop to admire every single one.

Just a reminder that tonight's Harvest Moon is the last supermoon of the year, and that there will also be a partial lunar eclipse. If skies are clear this evening, Beau and I will be out around ten watching Luna do her thing. Autumn moons are always something to crow about, and I often think of an old friend (now departed) who used to call them "big ass yaller moons". Standing out in the garden and looking up at Herself in the darkness, I find myself saying admiringly, "Hey there, Mama, looking good."

1 comment:

francesray.substack.com said...

I don't recall seeing a Vanessa until this lovely photograph. It's a lovely end of summer photograph, Cate. I hope you and Beau saw the moon last night. I did not.