Lilacs

Friday's Flower

A Species of Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly and Oregon Grape

Look for these beautiful butterflies from May to August in British Columbia's central interior.  They first appear in my garden near the end of May just before the lilacs come into bloom.  The Oregon Grape is an evergreen shrub that grows wild here. 

Friday's Flower

Perennial Aster and Fritillary Butterfly

The asters are looking beautiful this year.  Although I've had these plants for three or four years, I've never seen so many blooms before now.  This has been another rain soaked week for us, but yesterday morning, thankfully, we looked out on a blue sky and glorious sunshine.   The bees and butterflies were the first to arrive in the garden, then a few birds, notably the juncos, and at mid morning a happy and most grateful  photographer/gardener came out to view the scene.

To view more pictures of butterflies please refer to the labels on my sidebar.

Joy

"Orange is the happiest color." ~ Frank Sinatra

Compton Tortoiseshell (Nympalis vaualbum)

Today while I was outside, an orange butterfly flew past me and came to rest on a mat of dry grass near the roadway.

"Hello little butterfly, welcome back. I have been watching to see when you would emerge from your long winter's sleep."

~ April

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies

Papilio canadensis

These northernmost Swallowtails have been here for awhile, feeding on dandelions and waiting for the lilacs to bloom.

Interesting Facts:

• First named in 1906
• Initially considered a subspecies of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
• They produce only one generation per year
• Can be seen from mid-May to July
• Northerly range: Arctic Circle in the Yukon; central Alaska (Fairbanks); Churchill, Manitoba; Little Shagamu River, Ontario (near Fort Severn) and Schefferville, Quebec.

See all the beautiful flowers at Today's Flowers

Spring Things

The beautiful butterflies were made by my granddaughters.

In the Summertime

A photo taken last July - Fritillary butterfly, Painted Daisies, sunlight

A something in a summer's noon -
A depth - an Azure - a perfume -
Transcending ecstasy.
-Emily Dickinson (from Summer Poems: 122)

In My Garden

If you break off a leaf you will smell
the delectable scent of lemon mint.

I plant red petunias
every year, without fail.

Pansies that wilted
during a recent hot spell
slowly reviving

I took these two pictures when we were out bicycling.

As we cycled past the clover in the ditch,
a butterfly's bright sunrise colours

immediately caught my attention.

Later, I found out that this butterfly
is a Milbert's Tortoiseshell.

I'm glad I stopped...so excited to be able
to add another Tortoiseshell
to my list of butterfly sightings.

Clouded Sulphur
These pretty yellow butterflies are everywhere.

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Nature Photo of the Week

Field Scabious (Knautia arvensis), a member of the teasel family

These are the same wildflowers that you see in my previous post. I have not come across them anywhere else but in this dry, sunny location where they grow in profuse splendor. Each flower "button" is a dense cluster of small single flowers. On the day that I was here, the bees and butterflies were oblivious to onlookers as they went from flower to flower, busily collecting nectar.

At Home

This lone deer has become almost like the neighbourhood pet. We saw her yesterday as we were coming home. Most days she's either browsing by the side of the road or in the field.

Today I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon tidying up the garden.

This is our toad friend. His home is this drainage pipe. Usually he scurries away whenever we approach, but today he stayed long enough for a picture.

Orange on orange. There's a butterfly in these tiger lilies; you can just see its wings.

In the Garden

The other day I became fascinated with first one, then two Fritillary butterflies fluttering over the garden.

Enter Fritillary A

In this scene we see a small orange butterfly restlessly flitting from strawberry leaf to potato leaf, back to strawberry leaf, again to a potato leaf, then once, twice around the garden until a much larger Tiger Swallowtail butterfly suddenly appears and chases the creature off.

Unfortunately (for the spectators), the swallowtail doesn't linger, and after a brief visit to the Sweet William flowers abruptly flies away. At this point, the play seems to have ended when surprise, surprise the Fritillary returns and eventually comes to rest near the lemon mint.

Enter Fritillary B.

Unlike the first butterfly, this Fritillary is very interested in the Painted and Ox-eye Daisies at one end of the garden. Now the first Fritillary approaches the other creating a momentary flurry of wings in the surrounding stillness. This immediately leads to a pursuit the nature of which, I imagine, has something to do with love.

And this ends my tale of two butterflies.

Ever curious about the origin of names -

Fritillary is from the Latin word fritillus meaning dice-box or checkered (markings on wings)

To view or join please visit Today's Flowers.

The June Garden

The lilac shrubs are in bloom, and we are all ecstatic!

These are the Aquilegia formosa, a wild species of columbine, happily mingling with the irises and forget-me-not flowers.

This graceful wild perennial lily, known as False Solomon's Seal, can be found in various shady corners. Its scent is very heady.

And come see June's darling, the Wild Rose; its delicate, fragrant petals are newly opened.

Spring Has Sprung

Saturday

I've been walking past this Cottonwood tree every day lately just to catch a whiff of its wonderful springtime fragrance.

For a time, I watched a busy bee buzzing and foraging among the topmost branches of a willow.

It's great to see the stands of Poplars leafing out again. They are one of our most prolific trees, providing shade for us during the hot summer days.

Sunday

I zoomed in quickly (with my camera) to take this picture of the Mourning Cloak butterfly while it rested for a moment or two on a dry and brittle fireweed stalk. Yesterday, I saw two of them chasing each other, first fluttering closer to the ground, then rising upwards to the sky. They seem to like this open spot where the fireweed grow.

Butterflies in the Garden

It was a beautiful day here in the interior. I spent the morning raking and doing more yard work. Afterwards I accompanied my husband when he went into the woods to bring out some logs he had been cutting. They were from two trees that had broken in a windstorm this past winter. As we were walking, two butterflies fluttered nearby. I recognized the Compton Tortoiseshell immediately (I had seen it earlier in the month), but I wasn't too sure about the other one.

Compton Tortoiseshell

This butterfly is a Mourning Cloak, and like the Compton Tortoiseshell, hibernates during the winter months. There are no flowers blooming yet, other than willow flowers, but both of these butterflies also feed on tree sap and even scat. Sometime in June, the females will lay their eggs and new adults will emerge in mid-summer.

A closer look.

The same butterfly, with wings open. I just saw the one.

Bittersweet

Garden lilies just beginning to bloom
are visited by a Western Tiger Swallowtail
whose beautiful wings are torn.