Just after sunset I took a slow, contemplative walk around our block. No camera. The robins — seemingly the first birds up in the morning and the last to bed in the evening — were making their loud, final squawks.
There was no wind, so it was easy to hear all the frogs, frogs I never think about except on quiet evenings like this. And it’s somehow reassuring — hearing frogs at twilight — figuring as long as we can hear frogs, everything’s going to be all right.
And then, as I rounded a bend, I stopped to watch a hummingbird moth, looking eerily like a small hummer, working the bright blue lithodora flowers. Wings a total blur, a slightly spread “tail” like a hummingbird. How can an insect and a bird appear so similar? Be so similarly designed to effectively accomplish the same goal: sip nectar from flowers? Amazing. So amazing I simply stood and watched until it finally noticed I was there and moved on.
I moved on as well. A thoroughly delightful walk filled with beauty, quiet, and wonder.
Yes, it was hot here on the coast yesterday. But oh, what a lovely twilight!
©Carol Leigh
