October Butterflies

I am amazed at how many butterflies are in the garden this time of year. My two favorites are the common buckeye and the monarch. It's definitely a feeding frenzy around my butterfly bushes. Today I even saw a hummingbird. What are they doing still hanging around here? 

Pumpkin Pie thought he would play a little game with his squirrel friend this morning. 

No squirrels were harmed:)

Just open your wings and fly!

Zoe and I have been witnessing one of natures most amazing transformations the last few weeks. 

Right before Hurricane Irene I found some caterpillars munching on rue in the garden. We brought two in to see what would happen.

You can see two different stages of caterpillar in this photo. The tiny dark brown and orange one is a baby. The more they eat the bigger they get, shed their skin and turn green and black.

After eating for a few days they made a chrysalis. 

Fast forward about 10 days and they emerged from their cocoons today as beautiful 

Eastern Black Swallowtails. 

First the wings were damp and crinkled.

Then they pumped them and let them dry out.

It was amazing how fast they went from chrysalis to beautiful butterfly!

"If we did all the things we are capable of

we would astound ourselves."

~Thomas Edison

I've started painting for Halloween and this is my first piece, a ghostly Gypsy Vanner (sold).

To save on listing fees, I will be offering ALL pieces on my Face Book page first. 

If they don't sell, I will move them to Etsy or Ebay.

Butterflies

Some butterflies common in South Eastern Pennsylvania.

These I took recently in the backyard and also the meadow at the barn which has thousands of butterflies.

Above is a Pearl Crescent (I think).

Two Orange Sulfurs dance in the meadow below.

Common Buckeye above.

Meadow Fritillary below.

A beautiful Monarch on my zinnia.

This one below looks like a type of cabbage butterfly.

Silver Spotted Skipper

Another pretty Monarch...

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

My daughter, Zoe, hunting for butterflies.

The Meadow at Longwood

To me one of the most beautiful words in the English language is meadow. We don't usually go to Longwood in the summer so I had never experienced the meadow in all it's glory. I must say, I could have stayed there all day. Singing goldfinches, butterflies flitting here and there, tons of bees and beautiful flowers in a natural landscape. The sky was the perfect shade of blue with a few cottony clouds. I was in heaven.

"Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly

Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky."

~Dante Gabriel Rossetti

"How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold?

Because the lovely little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold." 

~William Wordsworth

"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."

~R.H. Heinlein

Ponies, Sunflowers and Butterflies

"Assateague Reflection"

It's been a productive weekend or me. I finished an acrylic painting of a wild pony in the marshlands. At least I think I finished, always room for improvement, right? It's from a photo I took on Assateague Island last week, an experience that I found particularly moving. They'll be swimming the ponies soon from Assateague to Chincoteague, I would love to go someday and buy a colt or filly. Just to be able to go and take photos would be a real treat!

Here's a tiny butterfly that was in my garden this morning. She's the size of a fingernail!

She held still long enough for me to get a picture.

Love this sunflower in front of my house. I planted a ton of them this year,

 last year they were eaten by groundhogs.

Question Mark Butterfly in the garden. He was feasting on my split tomatoes.

 They love rotting fruit. The name comes from that tiny little white marking on the lower part of the wing.

A sunflower in my pumpkin patch with the setting sun.

Happy Sunday :o)

Garden Friends

"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."

 ~R.H. Heinlein

A little wren on a child's watering can.

Zazu explores the cosmos "forest".

A dragonfly alights on a salvia flower.

Waiting for a push?

Meemee rests under the Siberian iris.

Ready to pick!

Some beautiful daylilies given to be my a wonderful friend!