No, not on my head — in my garden! This cute little butterfly visited yesterday. I had never seen one before and had to look it up. I love the eyes and extra tails on the back to confuse predators. It was not shy and I was able to get these shots with my 55mm lens instead of having to zoom in from farther away. 

However, I might get a few gray hairs over trying to decide what to do about our vacation to San Miguel, Mexico in late October/early November. Right now it doesn't look like either my sister or friend Carolyn is going to be able to housesit for us. We have to make a decision in two weeks since the rest of the deposit needs to be paid on the casita we are renting. To go or not to go? Will Alex be okay to leave then? Will  going to kennel have any effect on his disease?

We've been so looking forward to this vacation we really can't not go because of Alex, who at this point is really doing well. We can't predict the future so we need to make a decision based on what we know now. The vet assures me that his possibly being stressed while being boarded should have no adverse effects on the cancer. He did tell me that they board many dogs right there at the facility that need extra attention or medical treatments while their owners are away so I think I will look into that more fully. That way he'd be cared for if he needed medical attention, or if he gets picky and doesn't eat they can deal with that too. I hate to leave him where he's not familiar with the routine like he is at the normal kennel, but then again, will the normal kennel do anything about it if he's not eating or he gets sick?

Decisions, decisions, and none of them easy.

The other day I escaped the house for a little "me" time and headed to Skylands. It's been a long time since I was last there. The annual beds were planted with a riot of colorful zinnias and there were butterflies, bees, and hummingbird moths everywhere I looked. They were loving these flowers! Some of them were gracious enough to pose while others just flitted around.

 Sometimes one bloom was just too luscious for only one species at a time. There was some sharing going on.

I love how the little Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moths roll up their proboscis when they fly.

It's easy to see how they got their name. Here its wings look pink!

Not a zinnia!

Photographer's Note: I did not bump up the color on these photos. This is just simply how they downloaded from the camera.

I have no photos.

Swimming 20 lengths of the pool.

Bats flying overhead.

The occasional lost firefly blinking on and off in the woods.

After the 20 lengths, floating face up listening to my heartbeat, watching the bats flying above me. I felt as if I was still afloat in amniotic fluid. A child reborn.

Frogs croaking.

A dog doing so well after his second chemotherapy treatment that it makes my heart sing.

The first cicada heard today while floating in the pool with hubby. Not the guest cicadas, but the real ones that come every year. Welcome, cigales.

Goodnight world. All is well. At least for now.

I know—a strange mix of subjects on this Friday morning.

Finally, my necklace that we bought in Cartagena! It's turquoise and a stone similar to lapis lazuli. The ornament is a replica of a pre-Colombian nose ring worn by the native people. It is removable so I could wear the nose piece with another necklace if I wanted to. The gold beads intermixed with the stones are also indicative of what the natives would have made and worn. We saw examples of these nose rings in the gold museum first, then when walking around the town we saw this in a gallery window. Without our trip to the museum I would never have known what it was.

Funny, I am not a huge fan of turquoise having been around it so much in the west, but this particular piece has extraordinary color. I am used to the more faded-out turquoise. I tried several ways of photographing it but went with flash since it showed the true color. Here's a close-up of the ornament.

What do you think? My feelings won't be hurt if you don't like it. But I LOVE it!!

Our local paper came in the mail yesterday, and on the front cover was something very sad. Do you remember these photos of the wing-walker at the air show last year? On Saturday while performing at an air show in Dayton, Ohio, she and her pilot both died when their plane crashed doing a stunt. So sad. There is a video here of the crash and you can see that thankfully they probably never knew what happened. The video is pretty graphic, so be forewarned. Our local air show in August won't be the same without her daredevil act. 

On a happier note, the paper also contained a surprise for me. If you remember, I told you that the paper published my photo of the cicada two weeks ago. I read the front page stories and the paper about halfway through when it first came and then put the paper aside. When Rick came home I was thumbing through it again and came across another photo of  mine that I had submitted of the cicada in the pool. Take a look! Not only did I get my name as a credit on the photo, but they named me again underneath! I was thrilled and very much surprised. Maybe they just needed fillers! But still …

I'm glad to report that I am feeling much better all of a sudden. I did go to the doctor the other day and my "vague symptoms" were inconclusive. I do think that she figured out my cough problem: post nasal drip. Since I've been shooting steroidal Nasonex up my nose for two days now, I am coughing a lot less. She said it might all have been related to allergies. Who knew? Either way, I am feeling more energetic and more like myself. 

We finally got a good old-fashioned thunderstorm last night. The only bad part was that it messed up our plans to skinny-dip for the first time this year as the pool was up to 82 lovely degrees. Maybe tonight …

So with that mishmash of topics I think I've said enough for today!

I found this cicada not long after it had emerged from the nymph stage.