Have you ever wondered how the myth of fairies got started? I can't say that I had...until a few days ago when I was editing some photos from early July and came across a series I had taken of a painted lady (Vanessa cardui) nectaring on Baldwin's ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii).
As I watched the butterfly slowly pirouette and twirl from photo to photo, slipping its proboscis in and out of the different blooms, I started thinking how cool it would be to daintily walk across the surface of a flower without bending a petal, to sip from the deep throat of a blossom.
The wings of the butterfly opened and closed in successive shots...and suddenly I began wondering if butterflies weren't the original inspiration for fairies, with their bright colors, their wings, their big eyes, their small size.
Of course I'll never know - but I can sure have my suspicions!
5 comments:
Hi Gaia Gardener, i am tempted to call you Gaia! That violet flower, is that the Joe Pye? We don't have that but we have the fairies :) Kidding aside, i have a friend who is a 'sensitive', she can tune in to the dimensions most of us don't. It is just like tuning in to a TV channel, in her case she has them altogether without the remote control. She can even smell their scent. I can feel presence, but i don't see!
What a lovely thought. It makes total sense to me.
It makes sense - there's something about butterflies and gardens (and flight in general, I think) that captures the imagination. Pretty pictures!
Butterflies are sure fun to watch. I think equating them to fairies is perfect!
Kalantikan (Andrea, right?), The flowers here are ironweed. Joe pye weed blooms at about the same time and is also purple, but the color of Joe pye weed is a much softer purple, almost a pink. Joe pye weed tends to get taller and grow in wetter areas; ironweed tends to grow in very dry, open sites.
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