Tag Archives: flowers

molt…

04 Saturday Jul 2020

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it was overcast when I got up yesterday morning, but I went out before 7:30 to see what flowers were blooming and what the caterpillars were up to…

there were a bunch of morning glories and two dahlias were almost completely open…

the caterpillars were going through some of their instars… during the caterpillar stage they molt five times…

I was very excited to spot the largest one with the molt left on the leaf… after a while I noticed that another much smaller one went through the process…

this was exciting as I’d never seen this piece of the lifecycle previously…

the remainder of the day was spent quietly as I was not feeling well, so I slept and read in the shade, although I did check out the caterpillars now and again;-)…

eggs…

30 Tuesday Jun 2020

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so excited to have spotted monarch eggs on the milkweed…

after a bit of research I discovered that it takes four days for them to hatch…

I’ve been checking every day to see if any have popped out… and I found some;-)… they are the teeniest little things…

I’ve watched them before, but only when they were large, so it is very cool to see them at such a small size…

a number of times each day I check over, under and around the edges of the leaves…

now I know to look under the leaves with brown spots as they don’t always eat right through the leaves at this stage… it appears they like the newest leaves as they are clearly more tender…

sometimes it is easy to spot them and other times I don’t see any, lol…

very exciting;-)…

irises…

29 Monday Jun 2020

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a few days ago a great friend came by for a garden visit…

she brought me some gorgeous dark purple Japanese irises and a branch of lovely mock orange blossoms…

we had a nice time as we checked out everything growing in the garden and then watched the birds for ages… she knows lots about birds so I even learned a little, lol…

the house finch couple came by to visit and the house sparrows had a feeding frenzy as the parents and babies flew around and parents fed some babies and encouraged others to find their own seeds…

it was such fun to watch the way the youngsters fluttered their wings… and tried to land in various places… a few times I thought they were going to land right on us…

the sound was amazing as everyone was chatting and calling their family members, clearly wanting to be recognized, lol…

great fun to spend time with someone else who can happily listen to the water and bird watch for hours at a time;-)…

butterfly…

24 Wednesday Jun 2020

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just after my friend left yesterday a monarch butterfly flew through the garden and spotted the milkweed… it landed on it a number of times… I was thrilled…

it flitted all around the space as well as flying over the house and into the neighbour’s yard…

I sat and watched for the longest time… at one point I squished the oranges on the deck so the juice might be appealing, but no luck…

after looking closely at my photos, it looks quite beaten up…

in the evening, I spotted some eggs on the milkweed… I am reminded of the year that I got some wonderful pictures of the caterpillar to butterfly stages…

so very excited… can hardly wait to see if we get caterpillars;-)…

cushions…

24 Wednesday Jun 2020

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this morning I was up and about fairly early so that I could get the garden ready for a visit with a friend…

I’ve been quite lazy lately and have only put out a few chair cushions rather than all of them, but today I brought all of them out, including a few decorative ones that have been living on the couch, lol…

the garden looked great, freshly mowed and whipper snipped…

the veronica is blooming and the bees are all over it… the daisies are mostly open and the dahlias have buds on them… the lobelia is thinking of trailing and alyssum is growing nicely and starting to scent the air…

baskets are doing well and both ponds are flowing beautifully…

on warm days, visits need to happen before noon as there is little shade for the remainder of the afternoon…

the weather was perfect and finches and squirrels dropped by… we had a great time and enjoyed ourselves immensely;-)…

so nice to spend time with friends… going to organize some more of that;-)…

ceramic…

17 Wednesday Jun 2020

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one of the pots around the pond was a black pail that I had put a dahlia in and then a butterfly bush as the dahlia didn’t grow… could be the problem was no drainage…

a few days ago, I pulled a ceramic pot out from under the deck and repotted the butterfly bush into it along with one of the pansies that had been in too much shade…

looks much better, I think.. hope the plants like this one better…

rogue…

15 Monday Jun 2020

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had lots of company yesterday…

a friend found white alyssum and brought it over for me, as well as some other plants from her garden… I have been searching for alyssum for ages…

spent some happy time planting this morning… and still have some left…

while she was still here, my middle grandson was dropped off so he could mow and whipper snip the garden…

he even cut down a rogue elm tree in the back lane, lol… after he got the work done we had a lovely conversation before his brother arrived for a short visit and to pick him up…

I certainly am blessed…

fluff…

09 Tuesday Jun 2020

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started one of the sticker pages in my book… and worked on it between tasks in the kitchen…

I chose the dandelion because as I sat in the garden yesterday the fluff from the cottonwoods made it look like it was snowing…

not sure where the tree or trees are, but they sure are producing a lot of fluff, lol…

when I look out the front window it would be easy to imagine that it is the seeds from the dandelions…

milkweed…

08 Monday Jun 2020

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so happy when the plants arrived from Ron Paul Garden Centre just after nine this morning, so I didn’t have to wait around for them…

finally got milkweed and butterfly bush… took them right out into the garden and got everything into pots… one of the milkweeds already has buds;-)… hope the monarchs find them…

the butterfly bushes are quite small, but I am hopeful they will grow quickly…

also added fuchsia to one of the already planted pots and used the last few to fill a basket…

I am hoping that the garden is going to be lovely this summer as I anticipate spending lots of time there…