Tiny Tuesday : : Swallowtail

I've been stalking these large swallowtails in our own garden for days, ever since Matt noticed one while he was here. They are definitely not at all inclined to stop fluttering around long enough for me to get a picture, even with my long lens camera. I got plenty of exercise trudging up and down the stairs to the zinnia garden, where they like to hang out.

My chance came today when my neighbor rang me (on her husband's phone, so I didn't answer it because I didn't recognize the number). Eventually I got her message from the airport that she had found herself without her phone,  feared she had dropped it in her driveway at 4am and wondered if I could go look for it. She also left the code for the garage door opener for me to search their house if it wasn't in the driveway.

8 am is not exactly priority time for me to deal with anything…even technology as simple as a garage door opener. After several false starts, I gave up on it and took Ozzie for a walk. When I returned, I took OilMan with me and he got it to open right away. I think if you don't get it right the first time, it has to think about it for quite awhile before it will cooperate. I found the phone and then couldn't get the door to close. Neither could OilMan. Reluctant to leave the garage open to the house, I wandered around the garden for awhile and found this very obliging swallowtail on, what else, a butterfly bush (buddlea). All I had with me was my phone so it's not in focus, but I liked the colors. These are large swallowtails and at the angle from which I took it, this one looks like small airplane.

I emailed my neighbor to tell her that I had found her phone but didn't realize until she phoned again that I had sent the email to the very phone I was holding in my hand! It all goes to show that with technology that has become as habitual as breathing, you might as well leave your brain at home….I phoned her back but her husband's phone went to voicemail. Perhaps we'd all be better off if we left our phones behind. Hope I can remember where I put her phone….