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Bob
stopped the jeep and reached down and turned off the motor.
We sat there engulfed in a cloud of orange and black. It was
so awe inspiring that neither one of us spoke. We had the
top off of the jeep and the windshield was lying down on the
hood. We sat there for ten or twelve minutes while this
cloud swirled around us and finally disappeared behind us.
Bob and
I had gone to our deer lease in the hill country of central
Texas for the spring turkey season. It was the first week of
April and the wild flowers were in bloom. The deer lease was
covered with all kinds of wild flowers and vines in full
bloom and we were riding around looking at them.
We had
just forded the little creek that we called Crabapple Creek
on a jeep road when we saw this cloud of monarch butterflies
coming down the road toward us. The road cut through some
trees at this point and the road way was only about ten
yards wide.
The
butterflies reached from close to the ground to about ten
feet in the air and from one side of the roadway to the
other. There must have been thousands of them. As we sat
there, they flew all around and over us. At times they were
so thick that we couldn??™t see the road in front of the jeep.
To me it was a very spiritual moment that I will never
forget.
After
the monarch butterflies disappeared behind us, Bob started
the jeep and we drove back to the cabin. Nether one of us
said a word on the ride back. We were both lost in our own
thoughts about the experience.
When we
got to the cabin, I sat down in the porch swing and Bob went
inside. In a few minutes he came back outside. He had a cup
of coffee in his hand and he sat down on the swing next to
me to drink his coffee.
???Can
you believe what we just saw???? He wanted to know.
???Bob, I
was there so I can believe it, but anyone that didn??™t see it
won??™t believe it??? I answered.
???I??™m
driving up to the ranch house and calling Pat,??? his wife,
???and tell her about the butterflies. You want to come with
me???? Bob said.
???Sure???,
I said and got into the jeep. When we got to the old ranch
house, Bob parked in front by the six-foot high wire fence.
He went
into the house where Finn Aggard, the care taker, had his
office, to use the phone. Finn and his wife lived in the
back of the old house, but the office was always open so we
could go in and use the phone anytime we wanted to.
I sat
in the jeep and waited for Bob. As I sat there I was
watching all the humming birds buzzing around the
honeysuckle vines growing on the wire fence. There must be
hundreds of them. I was wearing my red hunting cap and one
of the humming birds buzzed around my head. I pulled off my
cap and laid it in my lap. I didn??™t want one of those
humming birds sticking his tiny bill into my ear looking for
nectar.
The
next thing I knew, this little humming bird lit on my red
cap that was in my lap. He sat there and we looked at each
other, eye ball to eye ball for an instant. Then he was off
to the honeysuckle vines again.
When
Bob came back to the jeep, I told him about the humming bird
landing on my red cap as it lay in my lap. He said, ???We??™ve
got to get some humming bird feeders and hang them on the
porch at the cabin so we can watch them.??? So the next time
we went into town, we bought two feeders and hung them on
the corners of the roof over the porch.
It only
took one day before the humming birds found our feeders and
we could sit in the porch swing and watch them. We kept the
humming bird feeders full of sugar water all week and we had
humming birds around them all day, every day.
The
next time we went to the deer lease we found that something
else had been feeding on the sugar water. But that??™s a whole
'nother story for a different time.
?©
copyright 2003 Loren Moore
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May you be blessed today.
Bob Johnston
Editor / Publisher |
