Sally’s Mobile Photography Challenge: Nature…not a leapling

Welcome to February, the shortest month of the year.  This year, however, February’s not as short as usual, because it’s leap year.

Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November;
February has twenty eight alone
All the rest have thirty-one
Except in Leap Year, that’s the time
When February’s Days are twenty-nine

This year will also have 366 days, rather than 365.  And if your birthday is Feb. 29, as is that of one of our friends, here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

A person born on February 29 may be called a “leapling” or a “leaper”.^[21] In common years, they usually celebrate their birthdays on February 28. In some situations, March 1 is used as the birthday in a non-leap year, since it is the day following February 28.

Technically, a leapling will have fewer birthday anniversaries than their age in years. This phenomenon is exploited when a person claims to be only a quarter of their actual age, by counting their leap-year birthday anniversaries only. In Gilbert and Sullivan‘s 1879 comic opera The Pirates of Penzance, Frederic the pirate apprentice discovers that he is bound to serve the pirates until his 21st birthday (that is, when he turns 84 years old), rather than until his 21st year.

My nature macro to welcome in this unusual month is that of a wisp that didn’t quite make it past the cactus upon which it’s now resting.  No leaping for this feathery beauty.  It may, however, have been liberated by the wind by the time I post this.

I had a wonderful time on vacation, but it’s also great to be home.  Looking forward to sleeping in my own bed!