Other Flying Creatures

Now that the hummingbirds have left us my attention turns to other things that fly the skies at MasterWorks Studios. For the last three years I have planted old fashioned heirloom zinnia seeds given to me from my St. Genevieve friends Charlotte and her mother Florence and each one of those years the beautiful yellow and black butterflies (shown in the image) visit the flowers in late summer. Various other species visit but it is not until mid to late September that the famous Monarchs fly through on their way to Mexico. How lucky we are to get to flag them on their way and what an amazing feat for these almost-weightless creatures to travel thousands of miles to overwinter and reproduce every year.

Before I sign off today I'd also like to honor another one of my new favorite flying things, the honey bee. Now I am NOT talking about the nasty little bees I call "sweat bees" that have given me the only two stings I've gotten in my life! The "sweat" bees are about the same size as the honey bee but are more of a yellow color vs the honey bee's golden tone. No, a honey bee is a very sweet creature that merely tries to make a living moseying from flower to flower gathering pollen to take back to the hive to make honey. As I was cutting back some perennials the other day I got one of those zoomed in views through some branches of one of these little fellows buzzing around a trumpet shaped flower, landing then tiptoeing around and all the way inside the flower until he disappeard. A few seconds later he emerged, covered with pollen. It almost weighted him down as he took off into the blue fall sky! The whole episode was almost as sweet as I know the honey he creates will be in my tea tomorrow morning!