Last weekend, a late killing frost set upon the land around our home. We have had a couple of frosty mornings, and the light frost seems to do very little damage to the plants around the yard. That all came to an end as the outside temperatures dipped below 30 degrees at night.

I wondered how light frost does not always kill plants. But the next night a heavier frost turns them dark before the sun touches them in the morning. You would think frost is frost, but, a light frost is when the moisture in the air freezes and settles like a layer of dust on the plants. A killing frost is when the moisture in the air freezes, along with the moisture within the leaves of the plants.

The area in which we live often has both late and early killing freezes. I traditionally wait to set out garden plants until at least May 15th. This year I wanted to set out tomato plants in a deep bucket to give them an early start on the season. I saw on the internet that if you planted them in the bottom of a bucket and covered it with clear plastic, you could get a three week start to the season for tomatoes.

I have come to realize that some plants are stunned by cold temperatures. The tomatoes in my bucket look okay, but they are still the same size as when I purchased them.

Mary says each summer, “Next year I am not going to purchase as many outside plants. Too much keeping them watered, and tended too. Each year a couple birds return from the south figuring she hangs baskets of flowers on the porch, just so they can build a nest in them. That means they crush the flowers, and we can not flood the plants with water or risk killing the baby birds. I look at them as $30 hanging baskets for the birds.

If you are like me, I am glad the time has changed, and the days are longer. Watching the sun set behind the hill at eight, tells me summer is close to returning, but a frosty night quickly reminds me, it is not here yet.

Last week, a couple of days before the late frost, I was tending to Mary’s outside flowers. I watered them and removed the dead blooms. Pansies seem to not be injured by cold nights. In fact, they don’t like it when the hot sun is on them. Their color flowers seemed to attract all the early returning insects in the area. Honey bees, along with a small spotted moth, joins a yellow butterfly who enjoys the flower’s nectar on warm days.

As I watched the collection of insects, I noticed in particular one butterfly that was visiting each flower. It was not a brightly colored butterfly that you might see in the hotter months. No, it was small, dull brown in color along with a fuzzy body. It had no distinctive colors, or markings. Just a small brown fuzzy butterfly. Nevertheless, the small creature went about its busy work, visiting each of the yellow and blue pansies. After a while, it visited most of the flowers and then it flew away. But, in a few minutes it returned to begin its search for a meal of nectar once again.

I wondered at first if maybe it was not the same butterfly I had seen earlier. But, watching it return several times, I decided it must be the same one. After all, how many plain brown fuzzy butterflies are there this early in the season?

It is a wonder to me that nature has such a plan for the smallest of creatures. The brown butterfly does not understand its life has just begun. It simply goes about gathering nectar to feed itself like it has every day of its short life. And at this time of year, Mary’s pansys are the first flowers for the brown fuzzy butterfly to visit.

If you think about it, in some ways we are a little like the brown butterfly. We each play a part in the world. But, unlike the butterfly who has no thought of what is to come, we each have the ability to look forward and say, “I’ll make tomorrow a little better than today.” I enjoy the return of brown fuzzy butterflies as I watch them Through the Lens.