Natural Entertainment

There is nothing worse than a summer cold unless it happens during those hot humid days toward the end month as you wait for fall having tired of comparing a mild fever to the real heat of a sweating brow when attempting to weed a flower bed while your nose drips, drips, drips to the ground. While lying in my bedroom one afternoon and sucking on a cough drop, I observed the view from the window at the foot of my bed.

Yes, I opened the window to get a better photo.  This is Auralia spinosa more commonly known as devils' walking stick.  The common name comes from the sharp and spiny thorns on its branches and trunk.  It thrives at the edges of woods or where soil has been disturbed.  Many people want to eradicate it, but it is an important pollinator and in my case a great source of entertainment while resting in bed.

I watch them dance and spar and then drink deeply of some amazing nectar: bees and bumblers and wasps, and butterflies.  It is good medicine.