Early visitor

Mom, my bro and his fiancee were down this past weekend visiting. Mom and I were outside one night and I noticed a gorgeous, huge moth near our light. I yelled at Art, Paul and Nicole and they came out. We were highly entertained by the moth. He appeared to be near the end of his life cycle but was still amazing. I thought it might be a Luna moth, but wasn't sure. We all took lots of pictures and wanted to share. It turns out that all that biology education I have does occasionally pay off as it is a Luna moth. Way early for our area, but he didn't know that. They only live about a week, do not eat and only live to mate. I'm gonna guess he did not fulfill his mission as we've never seen another one here, although according to Wiki, they are in the area. Enjoy the pics!

Art is holding it here. It was pretty attached to him and didn't want to let go! Probably was hoping it was finally going to get a chance to mate. Dammit all anyway!

Here it is on the ground. We were trying to get a good picture of the markings and coloring because we wanted to try to identify the species (ok, let's be real, I was probably the only person there thinking "species" because I'm such a HUGE NERD).

Here's a fabulous close-up. This is so pretty, I think I might change out my desktop.

The only reason this picture is here is because I have to brag about how very awesome my camera is. It was pitch black back here and I just aimed the camera in the general direction I thought the moth might be (as I couldn't see anything) and took the shot. This is completely the actual photo with no re-touching or enhancements. Yeah, Canon is the badass.

Awwww...I'm so in love with this moth. We never saw it again after it flew off. Hopefully, it found some poontang and fulfilled it's destiny.

As far as the garden goes, we actually had a total of NINE DAYS without rain so I managed to get all the tilling finished and got the entire thing either seeded or transplanted. I'm pretty tired right now and my weak ol' out of shape body is sore. I'm going to be a wreck tomorrow! Sorry Nikki, you're going to have to hear me whine all day.

Belinda