Oh Canada

[osprey_archer]

Back from Toronto! We got in a car accident on the way home (no one hurt, the the bumper valiantly sacrificed itself to defend us) and were thus a little later than expected.

I know long How I Spent My Summer Vacation essays are boring (although I've always wanted to write one; none of my teachers ever assigned such essays), so instead here are a couple of pictures of butterflies from the Niagara Butterfly Conservatory. It's absolutely lovely if you're ever in the area - a vast botanical garden with a greenhouse in the center, and the greenhouse packed with trees, flowers, a stream - and of course hundreds of butterflies, tiny as moths and big as bright-colored bats.





A Cairns birdwing butterfly. Lovely thing. They must have been the shyest butterflies in the greenhouse; even the morphos would land on people occasionally (usually kids; the butterflies seemed to prefer kids) but the Cairns, no. They never even got close.

Speaking of morphos...



I must have taken dozens of pictures before I caught a morpho with its wings spread. Worth every ounce of frustration, though I wish the focus were better.



Also, I have a backlist of posts to write. Why Veronica Mars is Awesome, book reviews, Julie & Julia (although I'd like to read the book properly before I comment on the movie), commentary on the latest Shadow Unit episode and why Reyes is awesome and people should love him more. And not just 'cause this ep is so tough for him.

Plus I have a copy of The Demon's Lexicon. This makes me happy.

Comments

[radio-silent.livejournal.com]

hey, how did i manage to steal your journal title for my friends/recent entries/profile set of links? that's too weird, considering i had no idea i was doing that. does it bug you, though? it's a great line!

i want to read that WHOLE backlist of posts, except maybe not the shadow unit thing because i don't know too much about it, but otherwise the whole thing.

your pictures are lovely, and i'm very glad no one got hurt in the accident!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Nah - I stole it from Emily Dickinson originally anyway.

What? You haven't read Shadow Unit yet? O.O Blasphemy! (Well, it is a big time investment. I can't blame you for that.) But really! It's awesome! You should consider it!

[radio-silent.livejournal.com]

i'll have to check it out! or at least find out what it is. 0.o

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Hee. Well, here (http://www.shadowunit.org/episodes.html) is a list of all the Shadow Unit episodes. (Each "episode" is actually a novella; here (http://www.shadowunit.org/origin.html) is the authors' description of the concept.)

And here (http://osprey-archer.livejournal.com/42690.html#cutid1) is a link to a post I did about how much I love Shadow Unit and how everyone ought to read it. I think it give a pretty good (and non-spoilery) description of the show, so you'll know if it sounds like you sort of thing.

[radio-silent.livejournal.com]

awesome! thanks for the links, and i can't believe i missed your post before!

[girl-called-sun.livejournal.com]

Lovely pics. And I salute your valiant bumper!

Must find the time to catch up with Shadow Unit, especially if this is a good one. Time, where do you go?

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I have no idea where the time goes - I seem to remember it stretching into infinity when I was younger - but it slips relentlessly away now, and I'm left staring at a pile of books and an endless Netflix queue and despairing as to whether I can ever catch up.