Every rose has it's thorn

Just like every night has it's dawn...just like every cowboy...you know the deal. Well, our family had a run-in with the down-side of "the nature of things" yesterday morning, just moment's after Olivia's last post. In that post, Olivia wrote about her excitement at the birth of a beautiful black swallowtail butterfly on saturday morning and of the upcoming birth of yet another soon. Well, that birth happened and as is often the case, life was snatched away before it even fully began. The black swallowtail emerged and began expanding its wings in preparation for its first flight into life. Unfortunately, before it could make that flight, it was spotted, killed and mostly consumed by one of our mockingbird neighbors. Now, this was a traumatic occurence for our family and especially for Olivia who watched it take place through the window. She ran out to shoo the bird away but was too late and the butterfly never had a chance. Olivia missed the actual birth (man, they are quick!),but she did find it once it was out of it's crysalis drying it's wings and got a few pictures.

This might seems a little ridiculous to some and maybe we are a long way from being callous and tough farmers but, we had a lot of time invested in our little butterfly friend and wanted him or her to have the best chance in life. After all, we followed its journey from a tiny larvea through all of its changes and had really hoped to be able to watch it happily fly around in our garden. Well, we all know that life and death are a part of nature and the mockingbird represents an important part of that. She has probably either tired from raising a family this spring or may still have young that she is trying to provide for and a helpless and very large butterfly that can't yet fly away is not an opportunity that she could pass on. The mockingbird provides us with beautiful songs all day and helps us fight of many pest insects in our garden. They also provide us with the chance to watch them raise their young and and enjoy some pretty hilarious antics each evening in the yard. All in all, it was a sad event for our family but, it is a part of life. Everything on God's earch must eat and there is a reason for each predator and its prey. We wish that the butterfly could have had a better start and enjoyed more life before it left it but, we take some solace in the fact that the new eggs on the dill have hatched, the caterpillars are munching, the mockingbirds are singing and the plants are growing. Life is being lived all around. Get out there and check it out!