Lightning bugs

A true summertime pleasure is relaxing in the evening and watching the lightning bugs.  They seem to be plentiful this year.  Monday I had a chance to sit on the front porch swing in twilight and watch them all across the front lawn.  In the (weedy) border at the edge of the lawn are two clumps of a wonderful daylily given to me by my generous older brother.  They make lovely yellow light in the border as the lightning bugs make their delightful greenish yellow light all across the lawn.
This is the daylily today.

 

Here are a couple of pictures that I took today of a lightning bug soldier beetle(?) in daylight on a Queen Anne's lace.

 

 

Okay, I'm updating this because just a little while ago, after I had adjusted the window and window screen, I somehow ended up with a lightning bug on my arm.  It blinked on and off and flew to the window screen.  I tried to get a picture.  It is blurry because neither the insect nor I could keep still.  But you can see enough to tell what it is.





 

 

Somehow watching a lightning bug evokes the delight and wonder of childhood.

They also remind me of Caleb's first piano recital.  The song he played was called "Firefly" and was a very simple little tune of mostly quarter notes and half notes.

 

A week or two ago I went out to look to for meteors.  The treetops in the back yard were full of lightning bugs.  They put on a much more dramatic show than the meteors.  I remember once when Caleb was small that we walked up the street in the evening.  There was one willow oak that was full of lightning bugs.  They set the whole tree twinkling like Christmas lights.

 

I think someday I would like to see synchronous fireflies like the ones in the Great Smoky Mountains.

 

Do lightning bugs bring back memories for you?