Volunteers

This was what my mother called flowers that reseeded themselves, coming up again the year after their original planting. These Zinnias volunteered their beauty in my sister-in-law, Carolyn's, yard for the second year, and butterflies are feasting... And we who come to swim in the family's communal pool get to feast our eyes. 

On this day, I had already tried for dragonflies that never paused in their frantic flight above the marsh, and I had come to the pool to aim for a shot of nesting great blue herons. The herons were in the tip top of a very tall pine, so not very clear. Besides my eye was now caught by the Zinnias and butterflies. Zinnias always remind me of my mother, who died in August of 1991. She loved them so. Steamy, oppressive August is not my favorite month, yet it is a good month for remembering Mama.