Flutter by, Butterfly
It is butterfly season here. As I mentioned in the last post, butterflies have become a standard attachment to any self-respecting front-fender, or windscreen wiper. And yet, despite the millions that doom themselves simply by fluttering prettily above the warm tarmac, there still seems to be an endless supply of them.
There is a bush outside our office which is a mass of pink flowers. You can’t see the flowers though, because the whole damn thing is covered in butterflies. It’s like the plant itself is alive, or as if they are attempting to carry it off to some sacred butterfly haven, so that that they can continue to worship its pinkness without having to worry about traffic.
I might try and take a photo.
Apart from this, everywhere you go, the air is full of flickering wings. Windhoek is unusually green right now, with grass verges that reach almost to my armpits. The grass, the trees, the road, the houses, all are adorned with a flittery canopy of butterflies.
Unfortunately, it also means that the place is full of moths. A few weeks ago, the Bloke’s outside walls were crawling with pale winged specimens that laid their eggs, and then died in droves all around the house. They disappeared and have been replaced by similar, dark brown ones that are about the size of the palm of my hand. They get everywhere. I found one crawling up the arm of the sofa I was sitting on in the bar the other day.
I like to leave my sliding doors open at night, so that the fresh air gets in. This clearly extends an invitation to the bug population of the town, and my bedroom seems to have been chosen as the haunt of these moths. I didn’t mind them until last night, when I lit the mosquito coil and all the insects in the room went berserk, and started hurling themselves at the walls in an attempt to escape. I had a moth in my hair for almost a minute, and I can tell you, I didn’t think they made my skin crawl until I practically gave myself a concussion trying to get the damn thing off me.
In the end I just turned the light off, put a pillow over my head and went to sleep. When I woke up this morning, the walls were bare.