Moonrise on a Summer Evening

Moonrise on a clear summer evening is always a magical moment. For me, there's just something special about watching the moon clearing the trees and filling the sky. Somehow it seems rare to me, though it's not. Perhaps it's only that I rarely get to see the moon rise that's special. Sometimes it's cloudy, sometimes moonrise is after my bedtime, but sometimes, the moon rises on a clear summer evening just as the sun is setting, and the result always makes me pause.

Yesterday was day three of this little July heatwave, but I got a brief break from it in the afternoon. A tiny thunderstorm cell--the only one in the area--popped up over Roundtop. The tiny cell brought a few booms of thunder and a brief spattering of rain, and best of all dropped the temperature 15 degrees. So my evening was pleasant instead of soggy.

Right now around the cabin I'm having a banner year for butterflies, but I have been completely skunked in trying to photograph them. Swallowtails are really in evidence--tiger swallowtails, zebras, pipevine, black--they've all bee around but are impossibly camera shy. Or, I have seen them when I didn't have the camera in hand. And it's not just swallowtails--Great Spangled Fritellaries, Painted Ladies--they are all having their moment right now. Perhaps today will be the day when one will pose for me.!