August is the wettest month here, averaging eight inches in total. We have three and a half so far. When it rains, it is usually heavy but does not last long. Very rarely is the whole sky one mass of indeterminate grey.

So I haven’t had to water much the last few days. Unfortunately, an anole leaped into our watering can recently, and then drowned. I dumped the water out, and hopefully something hungry has found the morsel of lizard left in the grass. I’m not sure what around here only catches live prey, and what will take already dead creatures. We haven’t seen the snake in a while, nor the bunny rabbit. Not that the rabbit would be interested in dead lizard.

So I’ve not been taking that many pictures lately. But here’s a butterfly that I noticed chilling while I checked on the plants in the backyard in the orangy evening light (at the edge of what the camera and I can manage):

From the trusty Audubon book, I think that this is a black swallowtail.