Happy Solstice!

It's the most wonderful day of the year. Light and light and light. Last night I slept with a pillow over my head, blocking out the din of trilling toads and the serious moonlight. A full(ish) moon and the longest day of the year. I love living in Minnesota. I love the slant of light in the winter, and the way a leaden sky can feel like being in bed with the heavy covers pulled over your head, reading with a flashlight. But this time of year sustains and restores me.

Gifts of the season:

Luna moth (Actias luna) This lovely creature emerged to a life in a soft cage in the shelter at the Garden, and the attentive care of all we volunteers and staff. Still a cage. Hope they let her go that night.

The most gorgeous showy ladyslipper orchids within a major metropolitan area, at the Garden, of course. Cyprideum reginae,