sunlight and insect juice

from Brian Doyle's Children and Other Wild Animals

A sparrow, tiny and cocky, shouting at cars and dogs.  A finch pouring summer from its mouth. A tree swallow, no bigger than the hand of a child, carving the huge air into circles of iridescent green and blue and black.  It swims and slices through the air.  It is as light as a whip tip.  It is made of sunlight and insect juice, exuberance and desire.

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"...made of sunlight and insect juice, exuberance and desire"

Mmmm, I love that. Thinking about the swallowtail caterpillars eating our dill (happily eating, happily giving), the deer eating our morning glory leaves and bean leaves.  Oh, and the Queen Anne's lace, which yes, I know is a weed, but I love it, visiting my garden like a hobo who has decided to leave its roadside journey for a stop at the nice lady's house. The finches, "pouring summer" from their mouths as they chide me for running out of seed for the second time this week. The sunlight and rain connecting everything in our days...

swallowtail on dill

scarlet runner beans - BEFORE the deer ate them

baby monarda

echinacea

The plants growing in the cracks, made up of duff and rainwash, which sometimes is just enough.

renegade snap dragons, growin' where they wanna

And then there are the mushrooms (you knew we were going there, didn't you?)...Everyone is complaining about the rain we've had this summer, but I feel so richly blessed by the abundance of diversity the rains bring.  Mushrooms, made of pine, hickory, oak...some discriminatingly choosing one species, others easily adapting to what they find around them, devouring and becoming and then showing their incredible blooms.

chanterelles?

Definitey an anglerfish. Clearly fungus and fish are related.

The prize: lactarius indigo. I always feel like I'm speaking fake latin
when I can remember this name. Naw, it couldn't be "lactarius indigo". It is. Milky blue.

This morning I am made of birdsong and coffee.  Sweat and sweet hay smell, tired smiles and friendly talk.  Farm eggs and sausage, Encyclopedia Brown and Ani chatter.  Contentment and bustle. What about you?