Luna Moth on My Art Studio Door
Imagine my surprise, utter astonishment yesterday morning, when, after letting the chickens out of the coop, I was about to push the door open to go back into my studio. At first glance, I thought that a large green leaf had somehow attached itself to the corner of the window and when I realized what I was looking at, a Luna Moth, it was a little unnerving to see an insect that was almost as large as my hand. After doing a little research on the web, I discovered, because of its tail shape, this particular Luna Moth is a male. Since the life span is so short; only about a week to live, I'd have thought this brilliant lime green, nocturnal lover would have been on a quest last night to woo a mate, which is his sole purpose for living (Luna Moths don't even eat). But no, he wasn't long gone, he was still attached to the back door, just in a slightly different place.
I had an interesting encounter with a very large flying insect one hot summer day, when a friend of mine, Rex Smith and I went camping at Shuswap Lake, which is located in central BC. As we were walking on a path beside the lake, my peripheral vision caught sight of something very large flitting alongside my head. I was so startled, since I knew mosquitoes in some parts of BC could grow to the size of miniature dive bombers, I immediately began to flee the area as fast as my lily white legs could carry me. However, much to my dismay, whatever it was, kept up with me. Since I was wearing a bright fuscia coloured shirt and I thought it might be attracting the mystery flying object, perhaps a tiny UFO, still at top speed, I immediately ripped it off and tossed it onto the ground. Rex, at this point, was laughing so hard, no doubt at my flailing arms and legs as I high-tailed it down the path, knowing whatever was chasing me couldn't be life threatening, I stopped running and turned around. To my amazement, sitting on my shirt, gracefully opening and closing its wings, was the largest and most beautiful butterfly I've ever seen. I imagine the butterfly had similar thoughts; I was the largest and most beautiful flower it had ever seen.
And while I'm on the subject of butterflies, when I first moved to Nanaimo from Calgary in the late 70's, a friend of mine, Gary Ritchie, a fellow artist and I went to one of the local bars for a few cold ones and a bite of supper. While we were enjoying ourselves, a couple of gorgeous blondes started giving us the eye, which I thought was rather unusual, since neither of us were handsome hunks and he was wearing a cast on his right leg, which he had accidentally busted a short time before. I didn't pay much attention to them and for some reason or another, can't remember what, inspiration overtook me to write a poem about a butterfly. As I jotted down the poem with a felt pen on a paper plate, Gary started chatting up the blondes and before I knew it, they had joined us. I don't know why, maybe because they weren't used to being ignored by men, the tallest blonde suddenly grabbed the paper plate off the table and began taunting me as she read the poem. When I told her the poem wasn't quite finished and tried to grab the plate out of her hand, she suddenly stuck it inside her blue blouse and in those days, hippy times still thriving, many of the young women didn't wear bras and it was obvious she didn't. When I demanded it back, I guess since the bar was full of people, she didn't really think anything would happen when she said, "You know where it is; come and get it."
I can still kind of see the look on her face, big blue eyes flashing like lights on a speeding cop car, as I reached into her blouse and grabbed hold of - bet you thought I was going to say her tits - but nope - the paper plate; didn't so much as touch her skin. Although she was surprised how quick I was, I think she was a little disappointed, especially since they later put the hustle on Gary, actually had him up dancing with a cast on his leg. They turned out to be just as I had sort of expected - the two gorgeous blondes were fun-lovin' hookers. I don't know what became of Gary and the two blondes that night, but I left the bar while the music was still playing and the beers were still flowing - climbed on my motorcycle and road off home - cheers, eh!
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