Anise Swallowtail

SIP 88, Ankle 57

I got a haircut today!! And here’s the deal: after counting down for so many days and being so excited, it really didn’t change my life. It freed me from the two bobby pins I borrowed from my neighbor, but that’s about it.  Mostly I feel I was in there too long, a half hour, and that there was too much talking. We wore masks. The windows were open. There was an air purifier. It was just me and the stylist, who I think I’ve been going to for close to thirty years (how is that possible??), and we had some catching up to do, but I hadn’t been that close to another person besides Mr S for three months and it didn’t feel right. How quickly I have changed my habits and expectations. 


The butterfly landed on the kiwi leaf and hung on in the wind for a good long time. It was one of those photo moments when you start far away so as not to spook the subject. You creep closer and closer, bolder and bolder when it doesnt move. Suddenly you almost don’t need the zoom anymore, you’re right there. I always think of the tiny buffalo way on the horizon at Yellowstone; they are really only dots on the photo, but, look: buffalo!  And around the next bend they are closer, and closer still, til wow, there they are walking down the center line of the highway, coming right toward the car, you can see their foamy lips, and I have a photo of a big red buffalo eye next to the side mirror of the van. Which is to say that I got pretty close to the butterfly this morning.