Sunday, September 28, 2008

Mysterious Ways

Last Sunday C came downstairs and told me there was a butterfly, or a moth, in his window and it couldn't fly very well because it must be a "young" moth. I followed him upstairs and saw a very large, very furry butterfly, wings flapping (thumping really) against C's window.
We put it in the terrarium.
After careful consideration it was IDs as a mourning cloak. Mourning cloak seems like a somber name for a butterfly, but it's fitting. It looks like a woman wearing a long black cloak with just a hint of white petticoat peaking out from underneath.
The guidebook said they like to eat rotten fruit so we put a few slices of tomato in the terrarium with the butterfly.
On Monday morning I was putting away laundry in our bedroom and I heard a "flap, flap, flap." There was another mourning cloak bumping up against the window above Ken's desk.
That one went in the terrarium too.
I wonder where they are coming from?
I was on the lookout Tuesday morning but there haven't been any more since.
Insects are mysterious aren't they? Why is it, for example, that no matter how often I vacuum under the baseboard heaters, I always see dead bugs there.
Imagine what life was like before the invention of the vacuum cleaner. When people had to actually touch dead bugs and cobwebs.

song: Mysterious Ways • artist: U2

No comments: