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.

Sunday Blooms

Walking around my garden is my morning ritual (well, after coffee of course).

Here is what I have blooming this Sunday.

Gorgeous orange zinnia above and a Queen Anne's lace flower below (my favorite wildflower)

Loads of daylilies from palest yellow to burnt orange and dusty mauve.

Here are just three of the 8+ varieties I have planted.

Glads, lilies, crepe myrtle, coneflowers, Russian sage...

Heaven for the goldfinches! I hear their songs throughout the garden.

Three of the 6 varieties of butterfly bush I have planted.

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

~Walt Whitman

Monarch

Most of the really flashy looking butterflies in my garden are also very skittish so I was super excited yesterday when this gorgeous Monarch let me take his photo. If you click on the photos you can really appreciate all the delicate details in her wing structure. I am amazed by nature every day and could sit for hours waiting to take the perfect photo. Hmm, maybe I should have been a field scientist or something. When I was a kid I thought the greatest job would be to work for National Geographic. Even got to see Jane Goodall lecture when I was in high school.



I'm so excited, today I finally have enough tomatoes from my garden to make a small pot of sauce. It's funny how so many giant tomatoes cook down to just a few servings...



And I also finished 3 small pendants over the weekend that I'm currently adding to my Etsy shop: an Arabian, a bunny inspired by the Unicorn Tapestries and a whimsical Palomino horse (my favorite of the 3). Still working on the harvest welcome sign. Hope to start working on my Halloween horse series this week too!




Happy Monday!

Silent Sunday - Scenes from the Garden