These last 3.5 years seem to have shot by, in a flash. wingedbeauty.com has been up that long, and now archives the more than 430 images that we’ve posted.

I shoveled snow twice today, and I must have looked forlornly at my front garden at least 8 times. The American plums and ice hydrangeas are only in for one year, but they gamely stood in their beds, buds looking healthy and earnest.

Back in the house, I got to thinking. Which of all of my posted images has stood out amongst the others, for this or that reason? Here is an answer to that. This image is the most shared of them all.

it’s serendipity too, because we met this Melitaea Persea Montium butterfly on the tippy top of Mt. Hermon, in Israel in June 2008. It was very, very hot and dry on that mountain, and I like remembering that now, when the last 2 weeks have featured nights with zero degrees Fahrenheit and below.

Why is it the most shared? I must guess. Because it is very rare, only found on that mountain top, and its flight is short, happily in June, when Mr. Passion for Seeking Butterflies was on the top of the mountain.

I fly to Israel on March 8, G-d willing. No way I can work Mt. Hermon for butterflies. It is covered with a cap of snow. I do plan to explore the slopes of the mountain, and the Upper Galilee. Yes I will be careful. Knowing that I’ll be close to the border with Lebanon, where the terrorist organization Hezbollah has now been joined by Iranian troops, together conspiring to cause murder and mayhem, this once-Brooklyn boy has seen enough action to not want to . . .

You know, the United Nations should have a permanent representative with a vote, there to represent all of G-d’s creatures, who seem forever jeopardized by the senseless actions of crazy humans.

Jeff