apparently cecropia moths have so many predators that they never become a pest. it’s an interesting way to think about pests. pests are the things that not enough other things want to kill, so we humans kill them instead. imagine if so many other flying insects found mosquitos tasty, that we cherished each mosquito that landed delicately on our forearms. oh look! a mosquito! wait, don’t move. let me get my phone. i’m going to instagram this.

cecropia moth

saint paul, minnesota

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this is an approximate scale model of the earth, showing the the comparative number of insects in the world (950,000 species and an estimated 10 quintillian individuals) to the number of people. as you can see, we fall somewhere within the margin of error. if only our species sat as lightly on the actual globe as we do on this fanciful one.

collected mid-summer bugs

saint paul, minnesota

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robin egg blue is a web-safe color. do you know what a web-safe color is? i didn’t.  so i looked it up. a web-safe color is one of the 216 colors that will appear exactly the same on any computer monitor. the thing i like best about web-safe colors is that their opposites, non-web-safe colors need to be generated anyway, and they are generated by a process called “dithering.”  which means they have little geometric patterns overlaid onto them in contrasting colors so that the eye perceives, for instance, a red background with blue “dithering” as purple. personally, i just like that the poor mama robin can simply lay her egg in robin egg blue,and get on with the miracle of birth, without any further dithering.

robin egg and nest

hugo, minnesota

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one of the most beautiful travel experiences i’ve ever had was sitting on a rooftop in fez, morocco over morning coffee when the muezzins began calling from the minarets that were visible in every direction across the ancient city. one of my least beautiful experiences happened later that same day, when an insistent herbalist in a pharmacy held me (figuratively) hostage, called me “Madame,” and rubbed me with argan oil, perfumes, musk, and rosewater, while extolling the extravagant virtues of each, and trying to find the key that would unlock my purse and start the money flowing in his direction. this image reminds me of both the high point and the low point of that day.

wild rose buds

grass lake trail, saint paul, minnesota

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