Skipper on Meadow Sage

Birds? Planes?

Look closely or scroll down to the next picture.

Actually, they are butterflies at the end of a butterfly dance. These florescent turquoise butterflies started here in this field. They fluttered around each other before one started flying up into the air. The other one flew circles around it before flying away in the opposite direction.

Death Anniversaries

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago. I am posting it today for the memorial of Great-grandmother and Great-grandfather. He loved flowers. He passed away 13 years ago. I knew him, but never met his wife. She passed away 27 years ago.

We left the house early today to go to their memorial. We went to the Buddhist pastor's house. It also serves as a doujou (both "o"s are long) or meeting place. Baba kept using that word today when talking about going to the pastor's house. Groups or families go there to pray or hold memorials. I didn't take pictures there. It wasn't because they wouldn't let me. I didn't ask. Maybe I will go back someday to take pictures and ask questions.

During the memorial, we sat on the floor on our shins. Everyone chanted. It took a long time! It was really painful for everyone to sit like that. Some of the older aunts sat on very low chairs. After the chanting, tea and cakes and cookies were served.

When it was time to go, Little Brother jumped up, headed for the door, and said, "Quick, Mom, before someone takes your shoes by mistake!" He almost knocked down a few old aunties.

As you might remember from a summer post, my shoes were taken by mistake while we were touring a thatched-roof house. I told him not to worry. Everyone there was family.

We all went to a restaurant. That is the custom after a funeral or memorial. We have a meal in honor of the deceased. At the restaurant, there was a clerk to take our shoes from us. She clipped a number on one of our shoes and then gave us a plastic disc with the same number on it. There was a sign that apologized. The sign said there were many incidents of people taking the wrong shoes by mistake. It also said that shoes have a memory, so please be careful to take your own shoes.

By the way, we didn't go to the cemetery, but we threw salt on one another when we got home. That is a custom. The salt makes spirits go away if they follow you home from the cemetery or memorial.

For some reason, this picture was printed twice so I will leave it. I think this is a Painted Lady.

Butterfly at the Hardware Store

Yesterday, I watched this butterfly at the hardware store for a long time. I noticed her because she was trying to get into the store. Then she became interested in a display of young trees. She flitted around and through them for a long time. She seemed to prefer the citrus trees.




She fluttered her wings wildly like this on certain leaves. Click on the picture to enlarge it.




Finally, I realized that she was laying eggs. Here is one of her eggs on a leaf of a lemon tree. Can you see the little white dot?




She also laid an egg on the wooden leg of a table.




I shopped for a while and noticed that she had gone. On the way home I saw this butterfly sunning herself. It may be the same butterfly.

Old Summer Friends

It seemed the cicadas started up a little late this year. They climbed out from under the dirt and have "sung" nonstop ever since. We have a lot of these holes in our garden. We also have several of the brown shells they leave behind.




This was the first cicada I have seen this summer. He stayed on this wall for a long time.

I grew up in Texas with lots of memories of cicada and skippers like this one. I have been here a long time. But I have just recently seen skippers. Maybe that's because we're usually in Texas during August and I'm never here to see them. I planted zinnias this year, too, so maybe that's the sudden attraction to our garden. Anyway, it was nice to see a memory of Texas here. Click on the picture for a closer look. I think skippers are cute.

Close to Home

I came in from the grocery store and went around to the back of the house to check on the catepillars. I saw this butterfly, a swallowtail, fluttering around on Aunt's flower pots. The flowers didn't look very tasty. Even with all the rain they had drooped. All that to say, I didn't think he would stay there very long.

So I ran into the house, actually it was more like I walked fast, and got the camera. Unfortunately the wrong lens was on the camera so I couldn't get a close-up. I took a few pictures anyway. Can you see the blue at the bottom of his wings?

This butterfly was jerking a lot and to me it looked like he was drying his wings. Could he have been one of our caterpillars? All the caterpillars but one are gone. Wonder how long that whole process takes. I remember my Dad used to say, "Look it up!"


Here are some of the things I bought at the grocery store:

This is goya, a bitter vegetable from Okinanwa, Japan. It's supposed to be very good for your health.





Notice how small the green peppers and cucumbers are here. The peppers (above the dollar bill) have very thin flesh. As I recall, the ones in the States have very thick.