Here's Looking at You, Kid

"Here's looking at you, kid." - Humphrey Bogart, as Rick Blaine, in the classic 1942 film, Casablanca.

I visited the Arboretum twice on this day, once for about a half-hour before work, and again for about a half-hour after. Lovely bookends to a summer day. And on both occasions, I was driven from the gardens by the start of drizzling rain, which never really amounted to anything, but drew my visits to a close by sending me scurrying for my car, camera tucked under my shirt.

And on this day, here were some of the things that happened at the Arboretum . . .

A bumblebee awoke from a night spent snoozing on pink echinacea, stretched, and went back to sleep.

A rabbit stood up on its two back paws and leaned forward to nibble on decorative grasses that line the path.

A new field of freshly emerged sunflowers practiced tandem maneuvers, turning their leaves toward the sun.

A hummingbird hovered over bright-colored blooms, stopping to drink from each one, then flitted to a branch overhead, where it took a bath.

A chipmunk approached the lily pond, drank carefully, and scurried away when startled by the shadow of a huge yellow swallowtail butterfly overhead.

Pink lilies cast reflections that were pinker than the original blooms, and orange fish swam among them.

The white, spent petals of lotus blooms wafted gently on the water, while their seed pods stood sentinel . . . periscopes from hidden submarines.

Dramatic clouds moved about the heavens, making the solar clock look like a mini Stonehenge against the amazing sky.

A dragonfly (larger than this friendly fellow) saw its shadow, heralding two more months of summer.

Since the title of this blip is a quote I pulled from a Humphrey Bogart movie, the song clip to accompany this posting is the song Key Largo, by Bertie Higgins. (As a classic film lover, I feel compelled to point out, though, that the quotes referenced in the song are actually from Casablanca, not Key Largo. Still, it's a great song.)