butterfly — Page 11

What Day Is It?

September 8, 2016 at 9:27 am by Claudia

Is it Wednesday or Thursday? I had to stop and think about it. You have to know these things, especially when you close every post with “Happy _____” (fill in day of the week).

9-8-easternswallowtail

This swallowtail was huge, but he wouldn’t stay still for long and flew away before I could get any more photos.

9-8-mgbud

Hello, morning glory bud! Soon, my friends, soon. By the way, I googled to see what moonflower buds look like and they look exactly like a morning glory bud. So whatever I thought I saw on the moonflower was not a flower bud. Sigh.

9-8-beebalm

Much of the bee balm has gone to seed, but a few stalwarts remain. I love that splash of red.

9-8-geranium

The geraniums that live in the whiskey barrels are still going strong. Right now, each of the barrels is chock full of blooms.

9-8-pinklimelight

Limelight hydrangeas start to turn pink in the fall. I love this little tinge of pink that has just started to appear on the blossoms.

It’s really hot here right now! What the heck? We really need rain; I know many of you feel the same. The grass is brown in places, I seem to be constantly watering the memorial garden and the chicken wire fence garden, as well as all of the plants on the porch. And the porch floor is dotted with leaves – leaves that are turning color and have fallen from the sugar maple.

No!

Don has to go into the city today. I’m hanging around here. I hope to get a walk in today.

I know. Exciting life, right?

Happy Thursday.

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Nature Day

August 20, 2016 at 10:03 am by Claudia

Yesterday will now be called Nature Day.

Morning found us outside standing near the Funky Patio (dubbed Funky Patio in 2010 when we threw it together on a whim) watching an Eastern Swallowtail butterfly float, fly, hover and circle the maple tree. He landed on the poison ivy leaves, on the leaves of other non-flowering plants, obsessively circling and landing as if he was absolutely sure that these plants held nectar of some kind. I kept saying “No. That’s not going to work. Go to the phlox.” But still he circled. At times, his circle widened and he came very near us as we stood absolutely still. This went on for at least ten minutes. Magical.

Then I spied this on the section of picket fence that functions as a door on our front porch.

8-20 stickbugs2

Two Stick Bugs, or Walking Sticks, one much smaller than the other, which led me to believe – in my naiveté – that one was the mom and the other was a baby. Off to Google I went, looking up Stick Bugs. Nope. Babies don’t hang around moms. In fact, moms drop eggs hither and yon and don’t stay with them.

No. My second instinct was the right one. They are mating. And, according to Wikipedia, this ‘mating’ can take quite a while. Days. If you were able to be on the porch looking downward on the bugs, you’d see that the little one is hooked around the big one near the bottom. In fact, if you look closely here, you can see it.

8-20 stickbugsmating

They were there last night. I haven’t been outside yet this morning to see if they’re still at it.

Then we took a mile and a half walk on the Rail Trail.

Then, I saw this beauty on the butterfly bush:

8-20 frittilary1

8-20 frittilary2

It’s a Great Spangled Fritillary – which has to be my favorite butterfly name of all time.

8-20 frittilary3

8-20 frittilary4

All in all, a lovely Nature Day.

Not one bird in the birdbath yesterday. I fear we’ve reached that time in the late summer when they begin to take off for other climes. I miss them. Henry? Who knows where he is? Bunnies? Not a one. But the mourning doves are still hanging around. Thank goodness.

Some of you saw the comment from my reader April Baldwin yesterday. I had mentioned the fire that destroyed the home of our dear friends earlier this week. Well, April – who lives with her daughter and son-in-law in Northern California – lost her home to a fire this week. A fire that was started by an arsonist. They also lost their four cats in the fire when rescuers couldn’t get to them.

Words fail me at times like this. What can I say that is even remotely helpful or soothing or caring? My heart goes out to this friend who has lost everything. Sending prayers and love and a hope for healing to you and yours April. And thank you to those commenters who reached out to April on yesterday’s post.

Happy Saturday.

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A Monarch & Mr. Robot

August 18, 2016 at 9:36 am by Claudia

Patience is a virtue that I don’t always have. But I do seem to have it when trying to capture flora and fauna on my camera. I’ve noticed that butterflies tend to come to the butterfly bush in the late afternoon/early evening. Around 6 pm I ventured out to the porch and peeked around the corner at the butterfly bush. Aha! A monarch! (And a hummingbird moth, I might add.)

I ran into the house grabbed my camera and then proceeded to contort myself into a position that entailed leaning out over the porch railing and then torquing my body to the right with camera in hand. For a long time.

Here’s what I got:

8-18 monarch1a

8-18 monarch2

8-18 monarch3a

8-18 monarch4

And, in flight:

8-18 monarch5

There’s more, but I picked the ones I thought were the most interesting. I like to think this one emerged from our very own milkweed plants.

This butterfly bush has been a joy. I planted it a few years back and now it grows very tall each year, with blooms emerging in August. I love its graceful lines. It draws small, beautiful moths, all sorts of butterflies, hummingbird moths – and hummingbirds. If you don’t have one, consider planting one next year. The bloom time isn’t all that long, but boy, is it worth it!

The morning glories and moonflowers are lush with green leaves and are climbing all over the place. Still waiting on some flower buds….

We mowed yesterday and it was exhausting. Since the grass was so long and wet because of the humidity, the mower kept clogging and we’d have to repeatedly stop and scoop up all the cut grass from underneath the mower.

Just under two weeks until the newest Louise Penny is published on August 30th. I will be at the bookstore that day, that I can promise.

Don was on Mr. Robot last night and we kept flipping back and forth between the Olympics and Mr. Robot to try to catch his scene. We were successful! He was wonderful in a scene with his daughter; heartbreaking, sad, bewildered, angry – very real, which, on film, is much more difficult than you might imagine. I’m very proud of him. We haven’t actually watched any episodes in the second season as of yet. We will. So we didn’t try to understand what the heck was going on with the rest of the show; we just caught his scene.

By the way, we didn’t find out that his episode was airing last night until mid-afternoon. I edited this post to include that information and mentioned it on FB and IG. Sorry if you missed it!

Happy Thursday.

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What Day Is It?

Nature Day

A Monarch & Mr. Robot

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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