A Backporch View

Little Red One (LRO)!

“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird . . . So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing – that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”
Richard P. Feynman

“You must not know too much, or be too precise or scientific about birds and trees and flowers and water-craft; a certain free margin, and even vagueness – perhaps ignorance, credulity – helps your enjoyment of these things…  ~Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, “Birds – And a Caution”

PHOTOS by Michelle for dogkisses, the blog.

QUOTES:

  All Great Quotes

  The Quote Garden

Autumn Nectar

The sound of bees swarming in the patch of Asters caught my attention.  I saw a shadow of movement and slowly, I approached the pretty Lavender flowers.  There were several little Skippers, a Painted Lady and dozens of bees drinking nectar.  I started taking photos and right away, the elegant Monarch appeared.

While recovering from pneumonia over the past several weeks, I’ve been fatigued and not able to do much.  A flare of more serious fibromyalgia pain and fatigue has been difficult and humbling.

Melancholia surrounded my spirit as I walked toward the patch of Asters.  I had taken several photos before I saw the Monarch.  Within moments, I saw another one.

I love all the butterflies, but personally, seeing the Monarch is a unique experience.  Their relatively long life-span and amazing migrations evoke a deep respect and admiration.

The two Monarchs were lovely and I enjoyed watching them play.  They looked young and strong.  Their wings were perfectly untouched, not yet shaped by a butterfly’s life.  They appeared to have seniority over the other butterflies, but that’s an amateur’s observation.

What a wonderful treat their gracing the garden was for me.  My spirit felt lighter when I left the gardens and headed home to rest.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Nature has given me a special place for respite. 

Note:

You’re probably aware that Monarch habitats have been seriously threatened.  The following link from http://www.MonarchWatch.org offers us an easy simple way to help:  Monarch Waystation Program. 

Below is an excerpt from the website:

“What You Can Do
To offset the loss of milkweeds and nectar sources we need to create, conserve, and protect milkweed/monarch habitats. We need you to help us and help monarchs by creating “Monarch Waystations” (monarch habitats) in home gardens, at schools, businesses, parks, zoos, nature centers, along roadsides, and on other unused plots of land. Without a major effort to restore milkweeds to as many locations as possible, the monarch population is certain to decline to extremely low levels.” (www.MonarchWatch.org)

Thanks for visiting DogKisses!

Creative Commons Copyrights Apply to all Text and Images by Michelle and/or in DogKisses’s Blog (https://dogkisses.wordpress.com/).  Please see Terms of Use in this blog’s sidebar for more information.

Related articles

• Painted Pretty in Nectar (dogkisses.wordpress.com)
• Photographers Offer Creative Incentives to Help Restore Monarch Butterflies (prweb.com)

Winged Wonders

Winged Wonders, a photo by Rosa Blue on Flickr.

Red-spotted Purple!

Related articles

• Butterfly la Blue (dogkisses.wordpress.com)
• Garden Friends with Wings (dogkisses.wordpress.com)

Butterfly la Blue

A colorful play in blue, with the Red-spotted Purple Butterfly. 

The photo above is of a Red-spotted Purple, but of course, with a little play in the colors.  I got some awesome shots of this beauty that clearly show its true colors and hope to share those soon. 

The butterfly came to visit while I sat inside the little oasis of green that I created on my front porch.  My winged friend liked the dog-bed cover hanging over the side rail.

I’m very tired as I write, but I must admit, I really like the photo that surprised me in blue, so I just had to share 😉

Until I can show you the Red-spotted Purple in all it’s glory, a quick scan of “Related Articles” tells me that I’m certainly not alone in my love for our flighty friends!  So if you’re interested, below are interesting links.  (It was hard to choose between all the links to folks writing about Butterflies).  Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting Dogkisses’s blog.

Note:  I also had another visitor to my ‘Green Healing’ garden the same day the Red-spotted Purple stopped by for the photo shoot.  A brand new, as in new-born, and very, very tiny lizard took its first crawl on a leaf in my favorite container of flowers.  I was truly in awe. 

Pop over to my other blog, Green Healing Notes, for a look.

Peace and Pass it On.

Related articles

• Nature Watch (goerie.com)
• Another New Butterfly (therousedbear.wordpress.com)
• Pearl Crescent Butterfly (wingedbeauty.com)
• Chasing Summer (forkinmyeye.com)