Mother Nature has been very generous with me this week. I don't know if she is egging me on to get back to my drawings instead of playing with words all day, but that is the feeling I get. As I was putting my kids to bed last night I reached up to draw the curtain closed and noticed a butterfly right up against the outside of the screen window. I realized it was dead, trapped in a spider's web. I ran outside to get it, afraid I might forget if I didn't do it right away. It is a pretty common butterfly called a Painted Lady that is mostly orange and brown and black. But the underside is incredible. It has a very loose pattern of regular teardrop shapes that are shiny silver surrounded by bright yellow and orange. The design is elegant and surprising. I never would have discovered the underside if not for the spiders web that was still clinging to the wings and made me inadvertently flip her over as I moved her inside. I am very excited to make a drawing of both sides of her wings.
Then yesterday as I was taking the girls home after some fun at a friend's pool, we were crossing over someone's front lawn on the way to the car and I almost tripped over a bird's nest. It was the first nest I've found, I think in my life. I have another nest that was found on a walk in the woods of Vermont with a friend, but my friend discovered it. This one seemed, like the butterfly, to have been placed in a way that I could not miss it or mistake it for anything other than a gift, meant especially for me. Thank you. Can't wait to start drawing.
No comments:
Post a Comment