Butterflies and Flowers....

I bought this rustic garden moose at a yard sale

and stuck it in one of my gardens.

I was tickled one day to look off my porch and see a goldfinch

on its back:

Nothing like baby birds!

This one is a baby Grackle:

A lupine, bent from the rain and wind:

Bleeding hearts:

A bee on an unknown blooming branch:

A butterfly on lilacs:

A columbine full of seed pods:

Another columbine. I  just love their shape, their tendrils:

I think they call this hawkweed?:

There is just something about flowers and butterflies

that makes me never want to waste a single day in the summer...

how about you?

This and That from June...

In Spring and summer, there are certain things that create emotion.

I don't know what makes us so melancholy in the Spring and summer.

It just happens.

For instance, THIS fellow makes me both smile and get angry at the same time.

(He eats up all my bird seed, ALL DAY LONG!!):

And this little fluffy chipping sparrow twittering on the branches

just makes me happy:

The eloquence of a Columbine, makes me wonder about the miracles of Nature:

This was one of the farm dogs at the Alpaca farm I recently visited.

His sad, loyal eyes makes me want a dog again. Longing.

Really bad.

But I can't....I just can't:

A goldfinch in flight

just takes my breath away:

And seeing bright yellow in the trees after a barren, cold winter lifts my spirits up

more than I can describe:

And?

If he is FLUFFY??....

Well, it makes me darn right GIDDY:

The bright greens of hosta leaves and the delicate blue forget-me-nots

make me smile in wonder:

Finding a garden moose for my garden at a rummage sale for $4.00??

Practically DRUNK with joy!:

And spying a hummingbird aiming for spring blossoms?

Thankful to the angels in heaven:

May your day be full of this season's emotions....

and gratefulness to Mother Nature

for the joy the seasons brings us.

Butterflies and more...

Today?

A mix of butterflies, flowers and other things that makes summer wonderful!

A butterfly on some blossoms:

A butterfly AND a bee!! My that bush was BUSY!!:

A blackberry blossom:

A baby bird:

A bunch of wild flag iris by a pond:

A closeup of my yellow bearded iris:

A closeup of my columbine:

Purple lupines!:

O.K.

Maybe EVERYTHING in the summer

isn't

quite

all

beautiful.....

I mean,

I

also

saw

THIS!!:

Feeling itchy?

Looking over your shoulder?

Sorry

about

that!!

Forget that last photo.....

Flowers with Spider Webs and Tree Seeds!

When I went out to check my Columbine garden a few weeks ago, it was during the time that all of the Poplar trees were shedding their seed pods and they "snowed down" on everything.

When I went to take closeup pictures of my Columbines, I noticed that they looked like spider webs hanging all over them.

In some cases, the spiders actually took up residence and used the seed pod "cotton" to make webs as well amongst the flowers.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy looking at the delicate webs both the tree seeds and the spider webs made:

If you look close at this one, you WILL see a spider who is taking advantage of the windfall seed pods. He is in the lower left of the picture!:

There are just a few "webs" in the flowers on the right of this photo:

This one is all fuzzy from the seed pod webs:

This one needs a shave!

Doesn't it look like a little bird on the right, with a yellow beak, ready to take off in flight?:





Again, the spiders already found this condo to live in:

This is a closeup of the fuzz on the delicate petals of this one:

This one is wearing a toupee of it!:

You could hardly see any of this with your naked eyes....it only showed up when I loaded the pictures larger on my computer...and I was quite excited to see what detail and fun it brought to the pictures of the Columbines. Nature always finds a way to amaze me!

Garden Update!

It has been a few days since I updated pictures of the flowers blooming in my garden, so here you go!:

Yellow Daylillies:

I don't have a clue what the name of these are!:

From my Columbine garden:

A new orange wild poppy I totally stole from the side of the highway beside a vacant farm where my Dad used to live:

A cute little yellow and white pansy:

Yummmm...white lilacs:







A closeup of that awesome Columbine:






We have this little blue wildflower growing all over our lawn, so I let a patch grow under some trees and now it is about 6 feet of all blue!:

Yellow Iris:

I bought this at Walmart last year. It is a small flower (this is a closeup with my camera) but I don't remember the name!:

I will try and post more later this week, I have a few more flowers in bloom too! I am so happy to have warm weather and COLOR outside in the garden again!