11 Jun At second glance?

On the lavender bush at the entrance of the zen temple, there is a constant coming and going. The butterflies and bumblebees completely ignore you if you stand close by and don’t move. Are they not afraid at all?

Cleopatra
If you look a little longer, you can see that each of these insects has its own protection mechanism. For the small elegant butterfly that may call itself Cleopatra, it’s simple: she is so beautiful in her striking yellow coat with orange stripes on it, but when she lands, she immediately folds her wings together, making her look like a flower petal.

Deception
The King’s Page is a large striking butterfly with a brown and white pattern on its wings. The pages flying around above the bush make no effort to hide their large wings, making them seem vulnerable. But if you look a little longer, you see that what you initially assumed was the top, with piercing eyes and prominent antennae, is in fact a deception, as it draws nectar from the flowers with the other side of its body, where its actual head with modest antennae is hidden. There are also pages with damaged ‘antennae’ that still flutter around above the bush as if nothing has happened.

In the air
Just above the blue lavender, strange creatures are dancing. Their wings beat so fast that they are invisible to our eyes. You are looking at a trembling colored cloud. Moreover, they do not land on a stem but use a long tongue to suck nectar from flowers while hovering in the air. They are called hummingbird moths. They are extremely agile, constantly in motion, and likely difficult for a predator to catch.

Black lacquered
Then there’s a motorized black-lacquered Harley bee. You can hear it buzzing from far away. When it lands on the lavender with its heavy body, the stem bends deeply. This bee doesn’t have to be aggressive; people will just step aside for it anyway. But what the fleeing ones don’t know is that this bee can’t even sting.

If you do nothing, everything happens and you observe phenomena that you didn’t notice at first sight. I call this ‘golden beads’; it’s the bonus step of Time Surfing. Let the action mode calm down during the holidays and allow yourself to be a spectator!

*This post has been automatically translated from Dutch