They're back....

My garden is bursting with phlox right now, which is like dark chocolate for the clearwing moths.  It's as if they know the phlox is blooming, like someone rang the dinner bell, like an urgent memo went out...well, you get the idea.  The garden was aflutter with them this week, both the Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) pictured here, and the Snowberry Clearwing (H. diffinis) which you can see in Extra.  With their fuzzy "tails" they look a bit like flying prawns.  Hubs and SIL are both a little freaked out by them, but I adore them.  

It was such a perfect day in the garden that I had to tear myself away to get to the gym for an hour.  And, as soon as I got home, it was straight back to the garden.  I saw two enormous dragonflies that I've not seen before here - both perched long enough for photos which I've sent off to a friend who's an expert. Waiting for him to get back to me with identifications.  They were both darner/hawker sized flyers, very large.  There are also multiple species of bees with more arriving daily.  Mountain mint is starting to bloom now, which is always a big favorite with all the pollinators.

Also in the garden today was a weathered looking female monarch leaving eggs all over; a beautiful huge Giant Swallowtail (HERE on Flickr)' a dark morph Eastern Tiger swallowtail and a Spicebush Swallowtail.  Good to finally be seeing some butterflies!

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have an excellent adventure.  Stay tuned...

xo
Debbi

On depression...it was shocking to me to learn some of the statistics on childhood depression since it is something I only experienced as a middle-aged woman.  It is estimated that 3.1 million children between the ages of 12 and 17 have experienced at least one major depressive episode in the past 12 months in the United States!  It makes you ask - why aren't we talking more about this???