What’s in the garden

Hey, wassup, hello.

Today is Monday, and you know what that means… Yesterday was Sunday - the day of rest.

On Sundays in Licciana the church bells chime louder, echoing through the empty streets where the plastic chairs and tables outside the bar and restaurant stay put. Kids race to the river unescorted by their parents, and the nonnos and nonnas are found hiding from the hot sun in cool corners of the town.

It’s also the one day of the week with cheaper electricity, meaning Sunday is too - the day of laundry. Lucky for me, laundry is my favourite chore lol.

I had 4 loads to do yesterday, and to entertain myself between cycles I got to work on some weeding in the garden. But the weeding was cut short when the flutter and buzz from the lavender bush uprooted my attention. Naturally, the next few hours were occupied (with intermissions to hang the laundry) as I watched the butterflies and the bees have their Sunday fun.

Here’s what I spotted:

Old World Swallowtail (Papilio Machaon)

Six-spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae)

Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum)

The Brown Argus (Aricia agestis) and the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Laundry Intermission (Lauandi Intermissio)

My muse, the Old World Swallowtail again

Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea)

The Painted Lady (Vanessa Cardui) and The Common Blue Butterfly (Polyommatus Icarus)

And 3 more Burnets hanging out.

I showed Barry what I found and he excitedly told me about a google doc he started a few summers ago to document the butterflies. I am now a proud co-editor of said doc.

Anyway, that’s enough garden talk.

Bye!

P.S. I was not expecting these pics to be so nat-geo. Shout out to the Fujifilm A850.