Monarch and Lilac Flowers © 2012 Bo Mackison

Every man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

As I was working in my new office set-up – my screened in porch off the back of my house, plus a Bistro table that I can either sit at or stand at while using my computer or writing – I looked up and saw several Monarchs fluttering around the Lilac bush only a few feet from where I was working. I had earlier been enjoying the fragrance of the Lilac, a French hybrid, deep purple Lilac that Sherpa and I planted on our 25th wedding anniversary in 2001. I stopped my work, readied my camera, and went out a took a few dozen photos.

But when I opened my computer to fetch the files I had downloaded this morning, the photos were nowhere to be found. I’ve been having problems with some of my storage drives, and I have my main external hard drive at the computer magician’s place at this very moment. He just moments ago informed me that most of my files are intact and retrievable. I’m missing 9 Gigabytes of data, and I’m not sure what those specific files were yet. But since the computer magician recovered nearly 300 Gigabytes of photo files, I am more than happy. (I do have another back-up, but it is inconveniently in Arizona at this moment. Poor planning on my part.)

Now back to the lovely purple lilac photo. Well, the above photo is not of my Lilac. This photo is of a bush I photographed at the Allen Centennial Gardens on the University of Wisconsin’s main campus a few days ago. It will have to stand in for the other photograph for now.

Once the thunderstorm that is directly above my house moves east, I’ll see if I can take another photograph of another Monarch on my Lilac.

Maybe, maybe not…

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.