I’ve been enjoying these last few days off.

The tax returns were in good shape heading into the weekend, so I took Friday off to go Colonial Williamsburg.  Did I ever take the pictures!  I’m still working on them, but here’s one of many from my camera that day.  Right now I couldn’t even tell you what my favorite picture is – I’m still reviewing them trying to decide what even turned out.

The Governor’s Palace had two beds of lantanas that was full of butterflies and moths, as well as a type of sphinx moth known as a hummingbird moth.  The hummingbird moths don’t stop moving, even when they’re sipping from the flower.  I cranked up my ISO to a faster speed and put my camera to continous shoot, but even with that a great many didn’t turn out.  In other words, I got this.  Can you find a moth in this picture?  I couldn’t.

I haven’t seen sphinx moths since we lived in Iowa.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it wasn’t a bee, but I had to watch it for a minute before I realized what it was.  I have some pictures in sharper focus, but it was hard trying to find one in focus that was sharp yet showed the moth sipping its nectar.  I have several that show how transparent its wings are, but I have to go through more photos to find one that’s sharp enough to share.

The flowers were beautiful of course.  Some of last spring’s flowers are now pomegrantes that look pretty edible to me after they finish ripening.

I’m glad I went on Friday.  The rest of the weekend has been hot, humid and rainy.  I decluttered more piles, tossing and shredding several garbage bags worth of paper.  I also went through the current month’s pile of papers, paid bills, and got some “to do” items done that were in the piles.

I’ve also had some relaxation.  I’ve been reading “Dearie” by Bob Spitz about Julia Child.  I’m up to the part where she has just met Simca and they’ve started a teaching school for other American women living in Paris who want to learn French cooking.  Up to this point in her life, Julia Child’s had little focus or purpose in her life.  She’s nearly 40 by the time she’s learned French cooking and hasn’t even started contributing to the book that she would eventually be famous for.

I’ve also done some much lighter reading – Kathy Reichs’ new book, Bones Are Forever and Tess Gerritsen’s Last to Die (Rizzoli and Isles).  Both were good entertainment for a few hours.  Thankfully it’s been cool enough in the mornings to just sit on the deck, supervise the dogs, and enjoy some fresh air.

I haven’t done much in the garden.  It needs to be cleaned out and dead plants removed.  I did pick some ripe tomatos (finally!  yippee!) and squished caterpillars on the collard greens.  Some of those poor leaves are practically skeletal.

That’s not all that’s skeletal – my parsley has caterpillars again!  I watched them this morning eating quickly and voraciously.  When I looked again this afternoon, they’ve already doubled in size.  There’s no sign of the robin – yet.

The beagle’s been back in the lantana again and it’s looking pretty beat down.  I think I’ll have to get a little cheap fence around it to keep him out.  Of course, if the watermelon in the middle of it would ever ripen, that would help it too!

As I was working on my photos last night, I watched last season’s Doctor Who and this year’s season premiere.  I hadn’t watched much of it last year as the storyline didn’t appeal to me.  But the season opener was really good – quite a twist to the Dalek story.  I’m glad I saw it.

Here’s another Williamsburg picture for you as a reward for reading this rambling post.

Enjoy your holiday (those of you who aren’t having to work)!  Hopefully your weather is good enough to spend some time outside.

Dogs Garden Williamsburg Colonial Williamsburg decluttering eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly hummingbird moth Julia Child lantana pomegranate sphinx moth Williamsburg