Wednesday’s Wildflower Woes

Yesterday I mowed the lawn. Well, I put the daisy destroyer to bad use. The daisy destroyer? That’s how I’ve christened the lawnmower. I don’t like lawns… I usually refer to them as green deserts. I don’t like gardening in straight lines… and I don’t like robbing wildlife of their food sources. Needless to say… lawn-mowing and me aren’t great mates.

The sun is not getting up too much anymore… so, there are shady, damp patches where the dew stays around much longer than it did a month or so ago. That made me think of mowing a wet lawn as a teen… but that is a story for another day. A lesson learned… more that forty-five years ago, popped out of the memory banks. But as I said… that’s a story for another day!

So… I left one lonely dandelion standing high and mighty… just to wind up the good lady. I eventually mowed all around the bloom. While winding my way all around the wildflower I had a thought. Imagine if, while I’m going about my daisy destroying business, a hungry insect should arrive and accept my generous offering? Imagine… a butterfly arriving… to slurp up nectar. Imagine. So… imagine my joy when a small tortoiseshell arrived on the scene as I was still doing the daisy destroying!

I rushed indoors to grab the camera… changed lenses and took a pic from the son’s room! Cool… slightly blurred but proof! Note the lawnmower’s wheel mark… straight lines. Anyway, by the time I made it back downstairs to try for more pics the butterfly had moved on. Pity. OK… so, the moral of the story? Leave something for the bees and butterflies… please do!

How about this for a sorry sight? My lonely dandelion… let’s hope a few bees and butterflies call by to cheer the bloom up! So… I went outside an hour or so later to see if there may be a visitor… only to find the encroaching shade putting an end to the day’s feeding time. I mean, would you want to eat in the cold and dark?