So Many Echinacea, So Little Time!

And such a tiny grasshopper!

Tremendous storms passed through our area on Sunday night, bringing deluges, heavy winds, and some pretty amazing thunder and lightning shows. The power flickered on, off, on, off. Finally stayed on. (Thank goodness!) Overnight, the system continued to move through, and I awoke to cooler temperatures and dramatic clearing skies.

I don't usually go into the office on Mondays, as it is typically a day to work from home for me. However, an important meeting required my attendance, and so on this day, I did go in. Before that, though, I treated myself to a very, very rare Monday morning visit to the Arboretum to watch the coming of the light.

The gardens were dripping wet, and the sky show was pretty impressive, with dramatic light and shadows everywhere. I made my rounds by the lily pond and took a quick lap around the children's garden. I also spent a few minutes in the pollinator gardens, listening and watching for hummingbirds, checking to see what visitors I mind find on the morning blooms.

The echinacea are plentiful in the pollinator gardens, almost a world unto themselves; their own pink universe, perhaps. There is always someone having breakfast on them, or napping beneath the blooms. On this particular morning, a teenie-tiny grasshopper was enjoying them, and I couldn't resist a few macro shots.

I adore bugs of all shapes and sizes, and so I thought this little fella was pretty darn cute. From atop a pink bloom, the bug turned and surveyed its world: "All of your echinacea belong to me!" it might be saying. Or perhaps: "So many echinacea, so little time!"

If I were this bug, I'd be delighted to live in such a lovely (as well as delicious and nutritious!) world. I might even be so happy I'd want to dance a little jig. So here is a happy dancing song for this bug's soundtrack. Turn the volume up and dance along if you like; I did. It's David Bowie and Mick Jagger, Dancing in the Streets.

Callin' out around the world, are you ready for a brand new beat?
Summer's here and the time is right for dancin' in the street . . .