_______________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________
Arbutus trees, first thumbnail, only grow in the Pacific Northwest, here on Salt Spring Island, B.C. and in parts of China, nowhere else in the world. They are popular carve-your-name-in-the-trunk trees because the bark heals into a soft well-defined scar. A few trees on the island have been abused like this. Still, they couldn’t take the beautiful away! Groups of three and four Fluted Swallowtails spiraled in and out of the sunlight as I walked down the mountain road on Salt Spring Island. Fortunately one briefly settled on a fir tree.
