Full moon this morning, and blessedly cool outside, relatively speaking. We had no power from Saturday afternoon, when a 90-mile-an-hour wind, they say it was a derecho, blew through and took out power to thousands, until mid-day today. Fortunately the 99-110 degree temps we can see in St. Louis in July stayed at bay, but it was hot inside the house, so the porch has been our hangout for a few days. We watched the wind on Saturday, just watching it whip by I felt like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

But hanging out on the porch has advantages. I saw this caterpillar on the elm tree. A Funerary Dagger Moth caterpillar. He becomes a rather unremarkable-looking moth, but his caterpillar stage is striking!

And this morning a crew came to repair our wires and get our power back. It was fun to watch them, especially since I can remember my climbing days back when we had a tree service. I sat out in the heat this afternoon just so I could appreciate the air conditioning when I came inside.