Yesterday, we had three butterflies hanging on the shrubs, waiting for their wings to dry enough to fly away.
I couldn't get a shot with all three in the shot. At least, I don't think I did. In the picture below, imagine the third butterfly all the way to the left:
I had thought I'd just take a quick look, but I was too intrigued. In the end, I sat on a lounge chair where I could see one of them. I read my book, enjoyed the sun, and looked at the butterfly every so often. It hung mostly motionless, with the occasional flutter of wings.
Eventually, the butterfly flapped its wings more regularly, and it wasn't long before it flew away. We kept an eye on the other two, and eventually, they, too, flew away.
This morning, we had 2 new butterflies--and a snake coiled in the bush where they had just emerged. In the picture below, the snake is the gray horizontal creature just below the butterfly and 1 inch below, you can see the rest of the snake (look at the bottom left of the picture where the snake's body is easiest to see):
My spouse and I had a brief talk about what to do. It wasn't clear why the snake was in the bush. He's been part of our property for years, so we're not afraid of him. But I really didn't want to watch him eat the helpless butterflies.
In the end, we did what we usually do: we let nature take its course. We are not strict vegetarians, and we don't require all the residents of the property to be vegetarians. I do wish they wouldn't eat each other, but I don't intervene.
I say that I let nature take its course, but I'm thinking of all the creatures we've pulled out of the pool, including baby snakes, frogs, and the occasional butterfly:
In fact, the snake we saw this morning may be the grown up snake that we saved years ago. But this life isn't a Disney movie, where we have a strange bond.
Or is it? As of right now, the butterflies are alive, and the snake has slithered away.
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