As I assembled these photos I could almost hear John Paul Young mooning, "Love is in the air— everywhere I look around/Love is in the air/in every sight and every sound/ And I don't know if I'm being foolish/ don't know if I'm being wise/ but it's something that I must believe in/ and it's there when I look in your eyes/ Love is in the air/love is in the air...".

In contrast to my last Cyberjournal about murder in the old backyard, I offer this tender side of Nature. Behold an orgy of images of romance in my garden. The first is of a male swallowtail who eyes the red spot and zeroes in for a landing. The other images are of compromised couples caught by candid camera in— as the divorce lawyers would say— "flagrante delicto". In the last photo, I only had less than a second to get a quick snap of tiny bees coupling in midflight. A serendipituous shot.

As these pictures unfold before you, imagine sexy-voiced Eartha Kitt crooning this picaresque Cole Porter ditty:

Birds do it/bees do it/even educated fleas do it/ lets do it/lets fall in love/ In Spain the best upper sets do it/Lithuanians and Laps do it/ lets do it /lets fall in love/ The Dutch in old Amsterdam do it/ not to mention the Fins/ folks in Siam do it/ think of Siamese twins/ Some Argentines— without means— do it/ People say in Boston beans do it/ lets do it, lets fall in love/ Romantic sponges— they say— do it/ oysters down in Oyster Bay do it/ Lets do it/ lets fall in love / Cold Cape Cod clams— 'gainst their wish— do it/ even lazy jelly fish do it/ lets do it/lets fall in love/Electric eels —I might add —do it/ though it shocks them I know/ why ask if shads do it/ waiter bring me shad roe/ In shallow shoals, English soles do it/goldfish in the privacy of bowls, do it/ Lets do it/ lets fall in love/ lets fall in love.