Adversity or Prelude to Blessings?

Rats. The camera shut down after just one picture. I followed the pretty dragonfly toward the pond but then gave up when I spied...a charming little elf-like sparrow peeking out from behind a large rock.

Did he see me? I began sketching him from the shade of the tree he kept hopping towards, and I continued doing so until I had completed the monochrome version of today's drawing (I colored it at home). If the battery hadn't run out, I would've probably tried to photograph the bird--and possibly scared it away, instead of ending up with this.

I started to head out to the other side of the park...when a large insect floated onto the branch above my head. 

This poor thing--called a crane fly--is thought of as a mosquito on steroids, but it does not bite, cannot harm humans, and in fact, lives only 10 to 15 days.

So when I saw it had made the special effort to lift up from pond reeds to the tree branch to get my attention to be drawn too--well, I just couldn't say no. I stood there under the tree branch with my brush pens sketching until my picture was finished--people walking through the park couldn't see the insect so didn't know what I could possibly be interested in...a tree?

I'd started out the day thinking, "Camera died; no pictures today." But I went home with two!