Irresistible

When I planted a small stand of Edelweiss last year, my expectations were fairly low. It's an alpine plant and even though our neck of the woods can and have resembled Alpine weather conditions, it can get super hot, just not for very long stretches of time. To my delight, they emerged from the snow early and simply picked up where they left off.

For the last three weeks, they've been developing their flowers: the most bizarre, cottony, star-shaped, shockingly fragrant wonders! This afternoon, they are filled with insects: dozens of ants, bees, a dragonfly and a few of these common house flies. For the flies, traversing the cottony strands is a breeze but for the ants its a bit of a wrestle through the jungle of white fuzz to get to the nectar. So completely engrossed in the struggle and pleasure of sucking on the nectar was this fly that he paid no attention to me, six inches away, testing my new Canon f2.8/100mm macro lens.

I have pined for a macro lens for a long time and Mr. F bought me one out of the blue. Now I know why he's been asking me about them, innocently, for weeks.

I shall think of a way to thank him properly.

superfly