Author: Dana Hunter

The Big Ba-Boom

Dana Hunter1 Comment

It’s that time o’ year again.  31 years ago, Mt. St. Helens blew herself nearly in half and changed America’s consciousness of volcanoes for generations.  Up till then, I think a good majority of us believed that ginormous esplodey eruptions were things that happened to other countries’ mainlands.  Yeah, we’d had eruptions in Alaska and Hawaii, but, y’know, they were Alaska and Hawaii.  Always the odd states out.  (Apologies to my Alaskan and Hawaiian readers, but face facts: your states are awesomely exotic to us grubby lower 48thers).

She seared herself into my consciousness 31 years ago, at a very tender young age, and has stayed with me ever since.  One of the most exciting things about moving up here was getting to see her face-to-crater. 

I won’t go on about it – did a bit of that in my 30th anniversary post and its addendum.  Someday soon, I hope, I’ll get back out there with a proper camera and a better understanding of the landscapes created and do her up properly.  She’s just a day-trip away, now.  In the meantime, I wanted to share this post full of incredible photos that popped up via someone in my Twitter feed, I wish I remembered who.  Thanks, whoever it was!  Some of the particulars in the captions are spectacularly wrong, but the photos are still gorgeous.

Some of them I’d never seen before, like this eruption at sunset:
USGS Photo #11 taken on July 22, 1980, by Rick Hoblitt

And a perfect demonstration of why I’ll never become a vulcanologist:
Photo #21 Date 17 April 1980 by taken from USGS helicopter

If you look above the 17, just over a third of the way to the top, you’ll see a very tiny human being climbing up the slopes of a violently active volcano.  That is David Johnston, USGS vulcanologist, whose last words I’ll never forget: “Vancouver!  Vancouver!  This is it!”  They bring tears to my eyes even now.  He embodied everything it means to be a geologist studying volcanoes: excitement, discovery, and devotion to science despite the danger. 

There’s a memorial at Johnston Ridge Observatory dedicated to the victims of the blast.  Take a moment to remember them today: the visitors, the residents, the reporters, the workers, and the scientists who became a part of the mountain’s history forever.
Memorial – David Johnston’s name is one row down to the left of the rose
The Big Ba-Boom
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Dojo Summer Sessions: Only One Person You Can Please

Dana Hunter2 Comments

Amanda Palmer recently entered a recording studio with Neil Gaiman, Ben Folds, and Damian Kulash to do eight songs in eight hours.  From scratch.  Using Twitter for song ideas.  Brilliant! Turbo Ocho just got pwnd.

Only some people apparently didn’t think that way, and started kvetching before the session even started, and, well, everyone thinks they’re a critic.  To which Amanda said:

catch 22: every artist and musician has to deal with this paradox of “demands” from different folks and the only answer has always been (in my humble opinion) to stick to your OWN personal schedule, make what YOU feel like making WHEN you feel like making it and let everyone sort out their own shit.
you’re NEVER, ever ever going to make everybody (or anybody) else truly happy. you can try. it’ll bite you in the ass.at the end of the day, you only really answer to yourself.

This is important, people.

If you only ever do what other people want and expect you to do, you’re going to get pulled in a thousand different directions.  Because everybody wants something a little different from you.  No two people are going to agree on what you could do that would make them Perfectly Satisfied.  Hell, you talk to the same person on different days, you’ll get different responses as to what they’d really like to see you do.

So, while it’s important to keep the readers (or listeners or what have you) in mind while you’re creating your various works of art, you can’t let them dictate what you do.  You just can’t.  You’ve got only one person you can truly please, and that’s you.  You probably won’t even please yourself, to be honest, but you’ll have better luck following your own bliss rather than trying to follow somebody else’s.

Do what feels right.  No matter how crazy the project sounds.  If you love it, if this is what you truly want to do, go for it.  Because you won’t know until you’ve tried if it’ll turn out to be one of those things that’s utter genius and has (nearly) everyone fainting at how Awesome and Original you are.  At the very least, you’ll entertain yourself.  You’ll have tried something that fulfilled you.  If others end up not liking it, if it doesn’t work, shrug and move on.

And remember that plenty of art didn’t get appreciated until after the artist was gone.  Look at van Gogh, for crying out loud.  Rummage around any bin of classics, in any type of medium, and you’re bound to find plenty of things that nobody liked when it first came out.  But the artist didn’t listen to the critics.  The artist did what the artist felt compelled to do, and created Art, and if it takes a while to catch on, even if it never does, at least said artist was busy creating rather than pandering.

Please yourself.  Then hope that your tastes aren’t so bizarre that nobody else is pleased, but if they are, oh, well.

And don’t let people dictate to you what a writer is.  If you don’t feel like writing every day, if that makes you miserable, don’t do it.  You may never become a published author if you don’t put the daily grind in, but maybe you will.  Write what you can, when you can, and the way you want it, and at least you’ll have pleased the person you have to face in the mirror every day.

If you don’t write with the goal of publication in mind, if you write only for yourself, you’re still a writer.  That’s what’ll go in the literature books if some relation digs your musty old manuscripts out of your desk drawer and publishes them after you’re gone and you end up selling commercially.  Writers write.  Nothing in the rules says you’re only a writer if you’re writing for publication.

Take risks.  Break rules.  Do things you want to do, and don’t mind those who tell you it’ll never work.  One never knows.  You don’t know until you try.

Listen to Amanda Palmer.  She of the Vegimite song and the exquisite taste in husbands: she knows her shit.  She knows there’s nothing crazy about doing crazy shit.

That’s what artists do, damn it.  So shut out the chorus of complaints and do what interests you.

Dojo Summer Sessions: Only One Person You Can Please

Los Links 5/13

Dana Hunter3 Comments

All right.  Sorry.  Yes.  We’re seriously late, here, but between Blogger’s malfunction and the fact my Muse isn’t quite aware the winter writing season’s over, I haven’t had a chance to put them together.  But here we are, and thanks to overwhelming reader demand, the Los Links show will go on.

Let’s get right to it.

I know Mother’s Day was two Sundays ago now, but these are still worthwhile posts, and we should probably appreciate Mom on more than one day of the year anyway.

Deliberate Pixel: Mothers, daughters and superheroes.  Almost made me cry, this one, and I’m one of those horrible people who tries not to get too sentimental about such things.

NYT: When We Hated Mom.  Believe it or not, we did.  Really.  Go find out why and how.

One of the biggest stories – well, more like ongoing saga – of the past couple of weeks is the flooding on the Mississippi.  Here are some posts that will help you sort through the chaos.

XKCD: Michael Bay’s Scenario.  You’ve only got time for one post on the Mississippi flood.  You want to understand just what the fuck is going on.  This is that one post.  And it proves that there’s more at XKCD than just brilliant science comics.

Riparian Rap: Giving and taking at Birds Point. Levees for Libertarians? This post is crucial for understanding flood easements, and a nice antidote to all those “Oh, those poor people the evil Army Corps of Engineers are flooding out of house and home!” stories.

And, quite important for me, at least, Neil Gaiman’s episode of Doctor Who aired Saturday.  This post explains why this is a Really Big Thing.  Allow me to quote, because this sums up exactly why I adore this show, and Neil Gaiman, so very much:

All in all, it’s a silly, twinkly and enchanting look at the world of Doctor Who from a new angle. The idea of treating the original mad scientist show as a fairy tale has seldom worked better than it does in Gaiman’s hands. It’s one of those things that starts out just sort of spinning out cleverness, and then it suddenly turns quite scary and dark, and winds up being quite emotional. And it might just make your friends fall in love with the greatest time traveler of them all.

It was all that and much, much more.  If you didn’t get a chance to catch it, treat yourself – it’ll come round again.

And now, on with the regular linkage.

Science

History of Geology: May 8, 1902: La Pelée.  First time I heard about Pelée was in a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not book.  David’s post is better.  If you like volcanoes, history, or volcanoes in history, go read this right now.

Uncovered Earth: Sunday Science Photos, May 1 – 7.  Have I mentioned lately how much I’m loving this series?  Gorgeous!

Bad Astronomy: Incredibly, impossibly beautiful time lapse video.  The next time someone tells you science isn’t phenomenally beautiful, send them here.

The Biology Files: Autism, Lupron, the Geiers, and what can science do about emotions?  A horrifying story, and a very good point.

Molecular Matters: I wanna be a Pseudoscientist.  This post made me laugh so hard I almost peed myself.

Glacial Till: Meteorite Monday: Origins of carbonaceous chondrites.  This post will cure you of thinking that meteorites are merely slightly-interesting space rocks.

Oscillatory Thoughts: We are all inattentive superheroes.  No, really, we are.  Go find out what that means.

The Panic Virus: The latest claims of “proof” that vaccines cause autism: Will the media take the bait? Why the anti-vaccination crowd is, once again, remarkably full of shit.

Culturing Science: Erasistratus on the nature of scientific inquiry.  Because I’m a complete sucker for history and science, not to mention ancient Greek and Rome.  Are you trying to tell me you’re not?

NASA Science: NASA Announces Results of Epic Space-Time Experiment.  Einstein was right.  Do try to contain your surprise.  But seriously – go read it.  This shit sounds like a science fiction show, but it’s real, and it’s so close to home.

Daily Mail: Drifting apart: Amazing underwater photos that show the growing gap between two tectonic plates.  This, people, is why science is so damned incredible.  Without science, it’s just a dive through an underwater canyon.  With science, it’s a story of epic forces and powerful plates pulling apart.  Fantastic!

Not Exactly Rocket Science: A memory for pain, stored in the spine.  Did you know your spine has a memory?  I didn’t.  Read on!

Short Sharp Science: Fossil raindrops reveal early atmospheric pressure.  Fossil raindrops are cool.  The fact they can tell us about the air up there billions of years ago is even cooler.

Explainer.net: The Fracking Song.  A video that explains fracking in song?  So awesome!  I loved this, and I don’t even like that sort of music.

Reading the Washington Landscape: Iceberg Tracks and Kettles in Columbia Valley.  Simply because I love glacial landforms, and these are awesome.

Religion, Atheism and All That Rot

Punctuated Equilibrium: Understanding Christianese, Lesson 1.  This is hilarious.  And helpful.  You can’t beat that combo.

Almost Diamonds: Standing on Aether, Thinking Airy Thoughts.   Bad questions, pseudoscience, and theology, and how they all tie together.  This post allowed me to clarify my thinking a bit.  Always nice!

Mother Jones: One Man’s Crusade Against Fundamentalist Claptrap.  And how the Cons have fallen in love with an enemy.

Choice in Dying: Religion Lies.  Just in case anyone had any doubt.  But it bears repeating, and the fact Eric MacDonald has an inside perspective makes it hit all the harder.

Butterflies and Wheels: Ron Lindsay talks to Chris Mooney.  Further proof the leopard can’t change his shorts.  Even when they’re reeking.

Writing

The Passive Voice: Don’t Sign Dumb Contracts.  Really, seriously, no matter how desperate you are to get published, don’t.  Also, this, this and this – you really need to read these in order to get a handle on how contracts can fuck you sideways, and how to avoid getting fucked.

MacLeans: Why it’s hard to write for Bugs Bunny.  This is one of the best articles on writing I’ve read for a long time.  Definite food for thought, here.  Plus, Looney Tunes!

KeyboardHussy: Reasons behind Self-Published Book Sale Spikes and How I was Wrong.  A must-read for anyone considering self-publishing.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing: What Works: Promo for Ebooks.  And this.

Women’s Issues

XKCD: Marie Curie.  Women, science, women of science, and truth.

Guardian: Speak up, I can’t hear you.  Why you should just forget all of the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus bullshit.

Salon: The “Hooker Teacher” tells all.  What our society does to women who ever dared take their clothes off.

Slate: Texas Passes Ultrasound Requirement.  And why frothing fundies and uterus-obsessed Cons might want to rethink the whole thing.

Pandagon: Sluts, Walking: A FAQ sheet.  In case you have no idea what Slutwalk’s all about, or think you know and have your prim little nose turned up.

Politics

Southern Fried Science: Florida Senate fails basic biology, accidentally outlaws sex.  ZOMG ROFLMAO EPIC FAIL.  Funniest damned thing ever.
Various and Sundry

Vanity Fair: Unspoken Truths.  This will break your heart.

Los Links 5/13

Summer Interview Series: Who Wants to be Famous?

Dana Hunter7 Comments

So I’ve got this idea: I’d like to interview a bunch of you and run those interviews throughout the summer.  You all deserve some loving attention.  First question: would anybody be interested in perusing such a series?

On the assumption the answer to that is “yes, please, Dana!” we shall move on to the next one: who’s up for answering pesky questions about their work and/or their blogging?  Alert me either in comments or at my Yahoo home, which is dhunterauthor.

Third question: what sorts of questions should I be asking, then?  We’ll start with the basics:

What… is your name?
What… is your quest?
What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow? 

(Monty Python fans are grinning about now.  Non-fans are tsked at and asked to watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail forthwith.)

All right, so those aren’t really the questions I’ll ask.  Thought, actually, I’d leave that up to you, dear readers.  What sorts of things do you want to know about working scientists and full-time writers and science bloggers?  Is there an interview question you think should be asked at every interview, but never is?  Put on your Nosy Bugger cap and get thinking.

Interviews will be conducted via email, of course.  I’d love to meet each and every one of you in person, take you out for a drink and that sort of thing, but I’ve got a limited budget and an elderly cat who will get a bit annoyed if I start jet-setting at this time of her life.

Right?  Right.  We’ll get started just as soon as we’ve got some victims experimental subjects volunteers.

Summer Interview Series: Who Wants to be Famous?

Cantina Quote o' The Week: E.O. Wilson

Dana Hunter

Wonderful theory.  Wrong species.

-E.O. Wilson

That’s Wilson’s verdict on Marxism.  I love how he can stuff so much political, behavioral and philosophical thought in just four simple words.

This is the man who managed to make ants fascinating.  And he’s a phenomenal writer, so if you haven’t yet, pick up one of his tomes.  And you might want to catch Nova’s Lord of the Ants sometime.  You will never forget his demonstration of the defensive tactics of fire ants.  I guarantee it.

Cantina Quote o' The Week: E.O. Wilson

Los Links Will Return

Dana Hunter

Well, we can’t blame Yahoo this week.  Instead of my draft email with all my lovely links presenting me with a blank slate when the time comes to put them all in order, we had Blogger going waaay down.  Well, that and the fact I’m writing me arse off at the moment and would’ve punked them off til Sunday anyway.

But the Readers have Spoken, and I wanted to assure you all that I will, indeed, continue on with Los Links.  Just for you.  And because there’s too much awesome stuff not to highlight.  But mostly for you.

And I’m now using Yahoo Notepad instead of email, which seems less eager to delete everything I’m collecting.  We shall see.

I’m off to continue my adventures with the Muse.  Laters, my darlings!

Los Links Will Return

Life-Changing Experience

Dana Hunter4 Comments

What a difference less than a year makes!  So no shit, there I was, sitting in training class watching one of the most mind-numbingly boring videos I’ve ever encountered, and my thoughts strayed to all of you.

You’ve changed my life.  And you saved it, just then, when my brain threatened to implode from terminal boredom.  Under the circumstances, I figured it might be time for a big ol’
Thanks!

Seriously.  I mean it.

First off, there’s all of the people who’ve been round here since the beginning, or nearly so.  Without you, I wouldn’t have kept blogging. You made everything worth it, kept me going when I thought that maybe I should bugger off and do something else, and made me think in ways I’d not thought before.  You stuck with me through all sorts of craziness.  You’re amazing.

Then the geoblogosphere adopted me as one of their own.  You know those moments you can look back on afterward and pinpoint as there, right there, life changed?  Yeah, that was one.  The big one.

You want to know how much you’ve changed my life?  This much:

Last year, I didn’t have any science books planned.  I didn’t think I could do any such thing.  Now, because of you, I’ve got one in the works and a few more patiently queued up.  I’ll be writing non-fiction science books because you showed me I could.  I couldn’t do it without you.  Literally could not.

Last year, I was freaking out over how I’d get the science right in my science fiction.  How could I find and understand the information I needed?  How could I get expert insights when I wasn’t comfortable approaching experts and didn’t know where to find them?  But here you are: experts!  Dozens of you.  On Twitter and on this blog, always ready with a helping hand when I need it.  Because of you, the fiction I write will be much sounder in their science, and there’s plot possibilities I didn’t even know existed before you, the experts, introduced me to so much fascinating stuff.  And the best thing? You get to choose where and when you help out, so I don’t have to feel guilty for pestering you!  You’re brilliant, you are.

But it’s more than that.  It’s the adventures.  Late last summer, my intrepid companion and I ended up adventuring in Oregon with Lockwood, and can I just tell you that being shown geology by a geologist is a whole new experience for an interested amateur.  Landscapes spoke in ways they couldn’t have spoken before.  He gave them a voice.  The world becomes far more fascinating when it can speak to you in more than just a few fragmented words.

And the adventures don’t stop there.  Lockwood and Silver Fox plan to join us for a trip to Mt. Mazama and Old Perpetual early this summer.  Some talk of wine and geology on Twitter led to plans (still coming together) for Glacial Till, Uncovered Earth, Helena, Lockwood and me to bring a whole new meaning to “geology on the rocks” later this summer.  Ann will be accompanying me on my next foray into Arizona, and who knows who else will sign on when that trip draws near? 

I sometimes hear people say inane things, like how online friends aren’t the same as the real thing.  All I can say is, they’ve never met my tweeps, my commenters, my fellow bloggers.  They’ve never experienced this community of people.  Always up for adventure, always ready with a helping hand, always bubbling over with enthusiasm for science and various entertainments and the wonders of the world – we may be far-flung, but we’re close-knit, and every single one of you has made my life immeasurably richer.

This life of mine, it’s better with you in it.  Just thought you should know that.

And thanks for saving me from neuron implosion in training, there.  I owe you big time!

Life-Changing Experience

Moenkopi

Dana Hunter3 Comments

Flagstaff isn’t known as red rock country.  But there’s one place, just a bit to the north, where the world changes in an instant.  Drive past Sunset Crater, and you’ll suddenly leave the black basalts and the towering ponderosa pines; the volcanics abruptly change to sediments, the Painted Desert appears on the horizon, and low, rolling hills broken by bones of rock appear.  At first, everything appears to be a subtle shade of rusty tan, nearly hidden beneath tawny bunch grasses and sage and occasional pinons and junipers.  But you reach Wupatki, and sudden, vivid red-orange rocks leap from the land.
Moenkopi Formation

The low ridges and hills crumble in slabs, broken along bedding planes.  It’s a completely different world from the ones you just left.  In parts of Flagstaff, the Kaibab speaks of shallow tropical seas.  Young volcanics, looking as if they erupted only recently (and, geologically, it happened just a moment ago), speak of fire.  But here, in this place, you’re on a tidal flat.  Rivers ran a lazy course to the western sea; worms burrowed in the mud.  This is the Moenkopi Formation, an expanse of sandstones and shales that remind you that this place, once, was on the edge of the sea.  You’re on a coastal plain in the high desert.  It feels like a different time and place; you can’t believe you drove for only twenty minutes, that the volcano you just left is only a few miles away.  But:

View Larger Map

There it is.

The Sinagua found the Moenkopi a very friendly formation indeed.  It splits off in flat bits absolutely perfect for building a stone mansion.  Enormous blocks of it that hadn’t weathered so conveniently merely got incorporated into the design, forming solid and rather artistic walls:

 		    
Building Before Bulldozers

I wonder if any of those ancient pueblo peoples wondered.  They could see cross-bedding, where the tides stirred the sediments.  They could see ripple marks and mud cracks.  They probably found fossils when they split larger slabs into smaller.  Did any of them pause and ponder?  I’m certain they admired.  The way they incorporated the monoliths into their walls doesn’t seem merely a matter of necessity, but one of aesthetics.  There are places where they seem proud to show off the attributes of the stone they used to build their big house.

The sedimentary rocks here look out on the upstart young cinder cones with some indulgence. 
Wild weathering and young volcanics

It’s almost as if the Moenkopi knows it will be there long after the cinders have eroded away.  Yes, wind and water wear down those ancient tidal flats and coastal plains, but it started its life as mud and sand.  What does it matter to the Moenkopi that it will become mud and sand again?  Someday, conditions will change, and loose sediments will be compacted into firm stone once again.  Millions of years from now, new pairs of hands may choose out pieces to put into a wall.  It might be darker then, having incorporated basaltic sands.  It might be formed from eolian dunes rather than fluvial processes.  But it will always have the echoes of the coast in it. 

This is one of the finest places in the world to just sit.  Look at the ancient coastal plain lapping up against the baby volcanics.  Sit here where the desert and pine country weave together.  Listen to the wind blow over fantastically eroded rocks.  Absorb the colors: the red and the black and the brave traces of green.  Remember the people who built their stone houses here. 

It’s a fine place to be.

Moenkopi

Dojo Summer Sessions: What if the Worst Happens?

Dana Hunter4 Comments

What if you become famous?  Because if you do, things like this happen:



I used to fantasize about becoming the kind of author who ends up a classic.  Wouldn’t it be awesome if my stuff became required reading?  Ended up on those college reading lists?  Got bought in bulk for literature classes?

Then I started taking literature classes, and had to analyze stories, and find out what the author really meant, and started hating things I’d actually quite liked on the first four readings (I mean, srsly, you can only analyze “The Tale-Tell Heart” so many times before you end up despising it like you’ve never despised anything before in your entire life).  Then I decided that this sort of fame might not be so desirable after all.  I think that’s when I began using abundant expletives.  That way lay safety.  Relative.  Who the fuck knows what’s going to be acceptable in literature class twenty years from now?

So maybe it’s a little grandiose to imagine you are going to be the shit someday.  Still, it’s fun to think about.  Until you start thinking of all the horrible things that could happen if you become as famous as you dream of.

Like the above.  Which, thinking about it, makes me think it might be a good idea to produce an annotated version of each volume, wherein it is explained, in plain English even an English teacher should understand, that “the curtains are fucking blue because I didn’t type green instead. Full stop.” 

How about you lot?  Do you have scars from overzealous analysis?  Silly fears about fame? 

Dojo Summer Sessions: What if the Worst Happens?

A Burst of Butterflies

Dana Hunter4 Comments

One of the reasons I’m looking forward to summer: I’ll get to befriend butterflies again.
Brilliant blue, snapped by my intrepid companion

When we were up at Summer Falls last year, we had little blue butterflies fluttering all round us.  They got very interested in my bag when I went to the bathroom, and when we laid down in the grass to admire the falls, they wandered all over us.  That’s a kind of magic, that is.

Come enjoy them with me.


Here’s another of the blues, also shot by my intrepid companion:



This would seem to be a fine example of Boisduval’s Blue Butterfly, which make eastern Washington pretty.

On the other side of the state (and the other side of summer), we came across a butterfly bonanza in the Olympics.  We’d come up for the geology and the alpine flowers, but the fields full of fluttering butterflies were a nice bonus.

We found this one along the trail:



I am teh suck at butterfly identification, but I’m fairly certain this is a fritillary of some sort.  Maybe genus Boloria, even.  I wouldn’t swear to it.  All I really know is it’s a butterfly.  It’s purty.  That’s good enough to be going on with.

And the meadow up by the visitor’s center was filled with butterflies, all sizes and colors.



I found this species fascinating, such a delicate, almost transparent white with garnet-and-gray markings:



It’s very probably a Clodius Parnassian. 

This one, I believe, is a relative of those little blues we saw at Summer Falls:



Yes, I know it’s brown, not blue.  But if it’s what I think it is, it’s actually a blue.  It’s a female, so it’s brown.  Clear?

Didn’t think so.  Look, just go read up on Boisduval’s Blue Butterfly here at this link, and all should become sort of clearer.  Boisduval’s Blues are at least a good starting point for anyone who wants to figure out what the lady above is.

And then, if you’re really enterprising, you can head over here and figure out what the delight below is, because I’m stumped.



We chased this swallowtail along the trail a bit, until it found a fine few places to pose:



I think it’s an Ainse Swallowtail.  I know it’s a swallowtail for certain.  See it’s tail?



It’s a little hard to see, but those elegant sweeping points are a dead giveaway for a swallowtail.  Unless I’m wrong and it’s a dead giveaway for something else.

He reminds me a bit of the ginormous yellow swallowtail my mom and I found in Oak Creek Canyon once, when I was a kid.  It came home with us and lived in my bedroom for a while, hanging around on my curtains, and sometimes with the printed butterflies on my bedspread.  One of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.  These days, I leave them where I found them – photographs are quite enough, thanks.

On our second day in the Olympics, we found quite a lot of little butterflies flitting all around the lake up by the dam.  They were too busy to pose much, but we got a couple of good shots.  I love this one, because it looks like the butterfly’s stretching up to say “Oh, hai!” to the bug above:



And then there was the pretty orange one having a nice rest in the road:



It’s probably a comma of some description.  Gray Comma? Green Comma? Hoary Comma?  Other people, better people, more detail-oriented people with a passion for taxonomy are welcome to weigh in.  I’m just going to enjoy the fact that there’s a butterfly species that shares the name of one of my favorite pieces of punctuation.

And while you’re bedazzled by butterflies, you should head over to Chris Carvalho’s site and check out his butterfly photography.  Michael Klaas, aka @UncoveredEarth, directed me to him when I put out my pathetic plea for help on Twitter.  Gorgeous, utterly gorgeous stuff.

Butterflies are wonderful.  They’re like living gems, hanging in the air.  I hope we see quite a lot more this summer, going about their brief and beautiful lives.

A Burst of Butterflies