Blackberries and butterflies

This morning I picked the biggest blackberry I've ever grown plus oodles of yummy tomatoes and beets and three plump cucumbers, but I also discovered that raccoons had ravaged our corn patch last night. Every stalk was bent over and every ear had been reduced to bare cob. Those ears were watered with my sweat so it caused me great pain to see them go to waste. It's time to stop planting corn or start building an electric fence.

The butterflies don't seem to mind. I haven't seen many fritillaries this summer but the swallowtails are abundant, including this spicebush swallowtail I found flittering around in the upper meadow. The only sounds I heard in the summer stillness were my own feet tromping through Queen Anne's Lace and Hopeful's panting. It can't be easy carrying around that black fur coat in this heat. When we came down from the meadow, she dashed right down to take a dip in the creek.

Meanwhile, I think I'll dip into those blackberries.