On his way home from work Friday night, ProfessorRoush turned onto the road leading to his house and, facing west, the sky ahead was this:
My first thought was "that's a rain cloud forming." My second? "But there's no rain predicted until at least Sunday." I took the picture from my front windshield to capture the moment.
Such, my friends, is the fickle nature of moisture in a Kansas summer. Six weeks ago, we hadn't had any rain for several weeks after a fairly dry spring and the prairie grasses were showing some signs of drought. Then it rained 6 inches in thirty-six hours and filled the ponds and soaked the ground and on a day no rain had been predicted. Following that we had no rain for a month and the grasses were going into dormancy. Earlier this week, we had 1.5 inches, predicted as a 30% chance, but the previously predicted late week and weekend chances all faded away as the weekdays passed. Just this morning, the local weather channel and my phone app predicted only small chances on Sunday. And nothing today (Friday) or tomorrow.
But the cloud pictured above came in and provided a 30-minute heavy downpour, dumping an inch of badly-needed rain in that period. To further illustrate our fickle weather, as I wrote these words, the radar looked like this as another storm moved in and yet, by the time I finished, the sky had cleared and this storm had evaporated, providing no moisture to ground level. How could it miss? How could it not rain? The leading edge of that rain is only 5 miles from my location!
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| Eastern Giant Swallowtail butterfly |
But enough nonproductive ranting and on to more pleasant topics. I was pleased, recently, to have this perfectly formed Eastern Giant Swallowtail butterfly (
Papilio cresphontes) cross my path while I was weeding, allowing me a brief "hello" and photo opportunity with this member of the largest butterfly species in North America. I'm convinced God made no creature more fragile yet more exquisitely colored in a detailed pattern of intricate color than this butterfly. Dante Alighieri was most certainly correct when he said "Nature is the art of God."
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| Arrowhead Orbweaver spider |
I was a little less pleased, but still fascinated, that very same afternoon when I noticed this Triangle Orb Weaver (V
errucosa arenata) hanging out around the garage door as I passed by to enter the house. Once I determined it was harmless, I returned its favor of benevolence and merely paused there for a photo of its adornment. It is easy to see why one of the other common names for this spider is the Arrowhead Orbweaver! One wonders the purpose of such a visible signpost, when surely matte black would suffice for a spider's garb, but, perhaps, its purpose is just that; to leave me wondering about the purposes of the Divine.
