Airfest

Great Bend had an air show this weekend, celebrating the 75th anniversary of its Army Airfield. We were planting wheat, so we didn't make it. But I had an "air show" all my own in an alfalfa field.

Since we are planting wheat north of Stafford, I took Randy his noon meal on Monday. When I found out he'd be refilling the drill after a couple of rounds, I decided to wait so I could get photos of the process.

At first, I lamented that I hadn't brought my book. But then I decided to take a walk in a nearby alfalfa field, thinking maybe I'd find a stray Monarch butterfly left behind when its compatriots departed for warmer weather in Mexico.

I didn't find any Monarchs. But I still experienced the aerial acrobatics of hundreds of little flying machines. I've never gotten photos of the little blue butterflies before. I later found out the bright blue ones were male Melissa's blue butterflies. They are about the size of a thumbnail, so it's not easy to get close enough for a clear shot before they flit away to another perch.

I also saw a few painted ladies (though their numbers were fewer than the smaller aerial artists) ....

... clouded sulphurs ...

... and, perhaps, some cabbage whites? I'm not sure, even after spending some time looking at a Kansas butterfly and moth website.

I may not know their names. But I know they made my day.

Beautiful and graceful,

 varied and enchanting, 

small but approachable, 

butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  

And everyone deserves a little sunshine. 

 ~Jeffrey Glassberg

Today, I'm scrambling to get my KFRM report done before 7 so I can deliver Randy to the field and go to Zenith to fill a 100-gallon diesel tank on the pickup. I'll pick up seed wheat on the way home from getting some medicine in Hutchinson, then deliver the noon meal to Randy again. Helping Randy move from over west to a field closer to home is on the agenda sometime this afternoon, barring breakdowns and other complications.  I'll be the one "flying" from one thing to another today. I could use some wings.

Painted Ladies Come to the Neighborhood

A bunch of Painted Ladies have come to Stafford County. It may sound like a Red Light District is infiltrating the countryside. But these Painted Ladies are much more genteel.

Painted Lady butterflies – which look similar to monarchs – are flourishing in Central Kansas “exponentially more” than usual, according to Jim Mason, director of Wichita’s Great Plains Nature Center, in a Wichita Eagle interview. Favorable weather conditions in Oklahoma and Texas earlier this year allowed multiple generations of painted ladies to thrive, Mason said. Now they've arrived in Kansas.

Enjoy them while you can, Mason said, because they won’t last long. Unlike monarchs, which have a north-south migration pattern, painted ladies – which have a lifespan of anywhere between two weeks and a month – don’t migrate away from cold temperatures.

“They will just generally go north and breed, lay eggs and die,” Mason said. “Come winter time, whichever ones are left here will perish – then the whole thing starts over again next year.”

It may look like I just waltzed out to the road and quickly got a photo of a Painted Lady in full regalia, spreading her wings and showing off the goods. But it took a whole lot of frames with her wrapped up like a modest lady in her robe - keeping her wings tucked together.

Admittedly, they are pretty with just their "underwear" showing, too. But between their quick movements as they collected nectar and the sunflowers swaying in a warm Kansas breeze, it was not an easy photo shoot.

I also had tried the day before at the Rose of Sharon shrubs we have at our north driveway.

They were modest then, too, though one was willing to share the spotlight with a clouded sulfur "cousin."

I didn't realize I'd gotten a second Painted Lady with her wings spread until I got back to the computer. (See the arrow pointing at the other butterfly.)

It was a Where's Waldo moment, kind of like seeing a yellow clouded sulfur butterfly on a yellow sunflower.

They were equal opportunity nectar gatherers: They liked the flowers in their own color and those in other hues. There could be a lesson there, I suppose.

A Time to Pray

Dear Lord, today I will notice Your hand in the details
that magnify Your love here on earth.
(From my email Guideposts devotional)

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/ent-columns-blogs/keeper-of-the-plans/article173023761.html#storylink=cpy