There’s an edge-of-civilization feel to my spot in the cosmos. There’s a house, a nice one. with indoor plumbing (a must-have) and even a storm shelter. But just beyond the yard where the dogs have established their dominance, there is an area dominated by neither human nor human’s best friends. Coyotes, Bobcats, and the usual assortment of copperheads and rattlesnakes rule this open wilderness. More about this in a bit.

There’s a lantana plant outside a window on the southern side of our house. There are two honeysuckle plants overgrowing their trellises in a wild profusion of tangles and blooms. Between the Yaupon holly bushes are a variety of Ocotillo cacti, blooming in explosions of dark pink flowers at the end of their elongated stems.

In a constant whorl of yellow and orange and black are butterflies, Cloudless Sulphurs, Giant Swallowtails, Tawny Emperors, and Monarchs. They poke the blooms with their proboscis, holding on to the petals daintily with their legs, occasionally fluttering their wings to adjust their grip, then to move on to the next nectar pot.

Bumblebees – what a perfect description! – tumble and wobble between blooms while sourcing pollen by crawling deep within the blooms to find the anthers of the stamen. Their rear legs and bottoms protruding from the periphery of the petals wiggle with their efforts, a comical display that belies an intensely focused workday.

Meanwhile, hummingbirds buzz the honeysuckle and ocotillo flowers, pulling the sweet nectar for a refreshing drink while they – perhaps unbeknownst to them – perform the secret mission of pollination for the immobile botanicals.

Dragonflies and damselflies, in a prolific spectrum of color and markings, flit between the garden’s offerings, dipping for a quick drink as they light on the pond, a nanosecond in which to quench their thirst on a hot August day.

Cardinals, Swifts, Mockingbirds, and Crows, sometimes common Black Hawks swoop and dive around the yard and garden, too many really to focus on here.

There are others, to be sure. Red wasps, honeybees, yellow jackets, and the infrequent (thankfully) hornet, nature’s angry missiles, bouncing noisily off windows and sonically disturbing the air around them with their D-day buzzing.

Which brings us back to the Barrens, the place of mesquites and springs and cottonwoods beyond the verge of our yard. It’s not barren, really, we just call it that because it’s just unsubdued by encroaching human processes. So I include it in what I love about this sanctuary, because it IS wild, and because its residents sometimes visit. In our tamer parcel of the Milky Way, whether you’re an opossum or a darner, you’re always welcome to visit.

I just wish there were more Fireflies…