Yesterday morning, just before the longest day of the year, a webcam showed a fresh sheet of snow glittering in the sunlight at Crater Lake in Oregon.

Here in Louisiana, large birds, rhythmic and powerful, took flight in the distance toward last night's sunset. The flock undulated like a ribbon in the colorful sky.

And there was the Great Snake.

Some of the pedestrian butterflies have turned true green beneath the white, still parked on the stems of the vines. Something growing within. I'm thinking they may not be butterflies at all. Right now, they look like living housing for something else.

There were at least ten species of bugs in the light fixture removed from the ceiling today, including dried out ladybugs and mosquitoes and tiny beetles that had been attracted to the light.

Fire ants feasted on a dead cicada on the driveway. There was one carpenter ant, so large compared to the fireants which barely would reach the carpenter's kneecap. The carpenter ant was acting erratically, writhing and twisting about. I looked down to see what was up. A fireant was clinging to one of its legs. The larger ant would try to brush it off, and the small ant would just hang on, or attach to another leg. A small fury. I guess its job was to keep the big ant away from the cicada feast, but really, I think there would have been plenty for all.

I've also seen the small ants working together to carry big loads such as a grasshopper or cicada.

Today, there's been thunder and rain.

Happy solstice! Welcome to summer.


Crater Lake National Park