This gorgeous butterfly arrived into my life in a most mysterious and surprising way. While preparing to toss a pile of spent foliage and weeds into the compost my eye caught sight of something strange and unfamiliar attached to a thick stalk. I cut off the stem, took it into my work room and attached it to the bulletin board that hung on the wall above my computer. The plan was to go on-line when I had time and try to identify it. Too often we allow life to become much to busy. By the next day I'd completely forgotten about it. Then, very late one night I was sitting at my desk working. Suddenly, I jumped. Seemingly out of the blue something quite large and very dark came fluttering down past my head and landed on the desk directly in front of me. Needless to say I was awestruck at seeing what it was. A brand new, shiny black, breathtakingly gorgeous butterfly had landed directly in front of me. (see above photo) I scrambled to figure out what to do. Putting it out into the dark night did not feel right. Not wanting to harm it by handling it I managed to find a container that offered plenty of room where it could rest until morning. The next day was bright and sunny, perfect for the butterfly to be released. My hubby, with camera, went outside with me hoping to catch a few shots of it as it took off. Neither of us were prepared for what happened next. The butterfly sat exercising its wings, then took off. It made several large circles around us. I held out my hand and suddenly, to my amazement it landed on it. It stayed there, resting, for a fairly long time before once again lifting off. This time the circles it made around us grew bigger and bigger until eventually it set out bravely to explore this exciting environment it found itself a part of. Soon it would join the myriads of other butterflies feasting on the sweet nectar of flowers and shrubs we'd planted just for them in our backyard paradise. But this particular butterfly had made all of the garden work our little back yard requires so very worthwhile. We would spend the rest of the summer playing the guessing game, trying to figure out just which one of them was our mysterious and "special" little friend.
