Ordinary and Extra-Ordinary: Nature's Timing

We took the Handbook of Nature Study Challenge this week to find the Extraordinary in the Ordinary.  Actually, the extraordinary found us, and we used it. 
While we were walking our dog, E and I noticed lots of little butterflies around us.  It turns out they were painted ladies!  Simply beautiful.  (Of course, we're simply walking the dog, not prepared to take photos).  
Then we came across this different butterfly just hanging out on a blade of grass.  This little guy or gal let us sit right down next to it on the sidewalk and watch it for several minutes.

This is E's sketch of the Gray Hairstreak from her journal page.

What you can't read in her journal is that we could even see it rub the back of its wings together.  

Especially with a dog at our side, it was extraordinary how this butterfly, which we later learned was a Gray Hairstreak, just sat there soaking up the dew and sun in our presence.  
 

Now, our extraordinary discoveries did not end with butterflies.  Later that day, we went outside to complete an item on our May Grid - closing our eyes and smelling a flower.  

Since we have an array of lilies in our front yard, we simply walked out the front door to do this one.  This time, though, I was photo-ready.  

 

This lily is an example of a "perfect" flower with both anthers and stigma to produce a seed.  I took advantage of this Charlotte Mason moment to show this to E, who, sadly, was not very interested. 

However, it was pretty cool when this tiny little bee (E said it's called a Sweat Bee, but I think that's some kind of Southern euphemism; I'll have to look into that one) flew in and landed on one of the anthers, hopefully dragging some pollen with him.  (If you look closely at the 2nd anther from the left, you can see a reddish brown bulge.  That is the bee.)  Now THAT's extraordinary timing!