In the stories of old a brave knight would go out and sleigh the dragon to save the damsel. Today I was the brave Knight but I was saving the dragons. This morning turned out quite nice, warm and sunny, and obviously the naiads hunkering down in my pond thought it would be a good day to hatch. Little did they know that by mid morning a storm of epic proportions would come through and would soak their wings and weigh down the plant stalks on which they were drying would plop down into the pond. During brief break in the rain I wandered out onto the patio and found three dragonflies literally drowning in the rain. Knowing I could not let such a thing happen, one by one I lifted them from the pond and brought them into my kitchen and placed them gently onto some sunflowers which I had cut from the lawn yesterday. (I now apologise for the absolute awful quality of the following photographs but I was more interested in saving the dragonflies than I was about taking photographs).




I left them in the kitchen for a while, catching their breath, just getting thier bearings and resting on the sunflowers. After a while the rain stopped and the sun came out, so I took the container which housed the sunflowers out onto the concrete patio table where the dragonflies sat and absorbed the sun. Covered in pond weed and still saturated with water they waited. As I watched, and looked more closely it occurred to me that I had three different types of dragonfly that I had rescued hatching on the same day. First a Dragonhunter, which in retrospect I should have let drown as his diet consists of other dragonflies and swallowtail butterflies but you know!



Next an Eastern Pondhawk, either a female or an immature male in the green phase.



Finally (my id is a little shakey here) a female blue dasher.



After the sun had warmed their wings a little while I performed some surgery with a toothpick to separate their sodden wings and remove what I could of the sticky pondweed. Soon each had four functioning wings and were happy to sit and dry them. By now they trusted me and when it was time for a little "surgery" they happily climbed onto my finger to be "treated".







At one point I think the dasher might have thought that I was "mom"



Every now and again one of them would flutter their wings, trying them out, just in case they were ready, and, inevitably eventually they were. And away they flew, on gossamer wings. I suppose there would be a boat load of people who would think "my god what a waste of a day" but me? Nope, I think it was a wonderful day, a day when I saved three lives, albeit tiny lives, but three lives nonetheless. Sometimes it is good to be me. :)

Things are going on in my garden right now. Asiatic lilies and bearded irises are blooming, looking absolutely wonderful. I have every intention of going out there this weekend and taking pictures of the most wonderful brown bearded iris that I have blooming right now, yes I know you think I am mad but it really is brown. The garden is alive, things are poking up through the ground that I don't even remember planting there, but then that is not unusual for me, I constantly plant things, forget about them and come spring I look at a sprout and say "I don't remember planting that". The garden is proving to me that life continues, all around us, despite everything else that goes on around us, life continues. Life is good.

A dragon killer, cruising in the air above my garden, looking for prey, which of course have no showed up yet. I went out there this morning and began planting and tending, getting my patio bed ready for my critters. As I planted, and weeded and tended my soul began to heal from the awfulness that was this week. After my chores had been done and all the plants and bulbs were in the ground and two loads of laundry were blowing in the warm breeze drying, I sat with a cup of tea and just drank in the atmosphere. The dogs who had been outside with me all morning found a cool spot under and tree and after a little bit of digging a cool spot went to sleep. The birds were singing, and in the distance I could hear a Carolina Wren calling out his territory to the other birds. The red bellied woodpecker is looking for a wife right now so he is relentlessly rapping on the gutters hoping to attract attention. The lizards were out in force, no doubt enjoying the warmth of the sun, I saw a male running up a post which formerly housed a bird feeder and he flashed his throat in the hope of attracting a passing female, which it did, and in celebration he changed from his drab brown garb to his brilliant green livery and the female seemed impressed. A pair of eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies soared above me, oblivious to anything but each other as they performed their mating dance on the warm spring breezes. Bees buzzed around my Lady Banks rose, burying down into the petals and sipping the early nectar where they could. All around me the neighborhood was alive with activity, lawn mowers were coughing into life after a winter in the garage, accompanied by curse words from the owners of those that refused to do so. The birds, while wary of my presence, ventured down to the feeders to grab a late snack as the sun began to go down behind the trees in my neighbor's yard. A Morning Cloak butterfly flew passed, obviously looking for a scarred tree to drink its sap, and one by one yellow sulphers flew around the garden. Even a Cabbage White headed toward the vegetable garden and I didn't even mind. Later in the afternoon martins or swifts (whichever they were) flew above the house, gathering insects as they do, and then headed off to wherever it is they roost. I needed that hour. After an awful week, I needed that hour of rebirth and renewal, where life literally surrounded me, where all around me there was new life. Perhaps I can't make a difference to the world, perhaps I cannot help with global warming or world famine or even species going extinct. But there is one thing I know for sure, in my little acre I can make a difference. This year birds will thrive and produce young because I care for them, the lizards will reproduce in my cide free garden because I make sure that none of the insects that they eat will be contaminated, the butterflies will visit the flowers in my garden and then lay eggs on the plants that I have planted for that very purpose and the dragonflies will lay eggs in my pond and the next generation will hatch in spring next year, just as this year's generation are hunkering down in my weed infested pond and waiting just waiting for that moment when they know it is time to leave the water and take their first breath of air. And it is because of me. Perhaps I can't change the world, perhaps I can't save it. But I can save my little acre of it, and I intend to do so. And on the wings of a newly hatched dragonfly will go a little of my soul, and I will live forever.

You were a child of half my husband, a child of such promise, a child who, given the chance of growing and learning could have become something greater than your 4 years. Due to family conflicts you were deprived of a wonderful grandpa, and a wonderful great-grandma x 2, deprived to the extent that your parents and family could not even find it in themselves to let us know that you were gone. Night night Zander, your grandpa and I loved you, even though you were never allowed to know it. Your grandpa and I loved you. And we love you still.

So - this evening my husband returns from school with half a dead cow in a cooler in the trunk of his car. (Okay I am being economical with the truth it is not really HALF a dead cow). Anyhoo, sirloins, t-bones, rib-eyes, chuck steak joints. It would appear that as my mother (a vegetarian) would say "someone just murdered Daisy!" So with my belief that if an animal has to die then every part of it should be used for good right now the chuck beef, fat and suet (which was tons cause of course the beef was not "for resale") is rendering down in the oven right now. The suet will be drained into containers and mixed with bird seed and made into treats for my insect eating birdies, the beef and the bones will be dinner for my dogs. As for the rest, well my husband is having a t-bone for dinner. Most teachers get given apples, my husband (teaching in a hunting/farming community) gets half a cow! (oh and strawberries, and beans, and field peas, and corn and sweet potatoes and venison etc., etc.,).