Friday, May 25, 2012

Finding the Beauty After the Rain

I must have flowers, always, and always.
~Claude Monet

Ah, the rain. I think it's rained everyday for three weeks straight. And there is still over six months to go before the tropical season is over. *sigh*

The last few days have been really bad...over seven inches where I live. Streets are flooded and it's just dark and gloomy all day long. And to add to the gloom, I've had a stomach bug for most of the week. But not all was a wash. The came out yesterday afternoon for a bit and I took the opportunity to hurry to the mailbox before the next deluge.
And I saw something.
Four large Black Swallowtail caterpillars munching away at a pot of parsley.

Parsley Munchers

I've never had Black Swallowtails before! I saw one flying around about two weeks ago, first time seeing one in my yard ever. I had checked the parsley and there were eggs on it and I was really excited that I finally attracted a new critter to the yard. I planted the parsley two years ago in a pot and it's now rooted itself into the ground. I don't harvest from this pot as it also has milkweed and passion-vine that have self-seeded there. I noticed that they've nearly eaten all of it so I had to give up my own pot of parsley that I do harvest from that is kept on my screened-in patio. Now, they will have enough to finish eating and go pupate somewhere and make more Black Swallowtail Butterflies! I can't wait to see them zooming around my yard and hopefully I'll be able to snap a pic of one of the butterflies.

Garden Greens

After the excitement of seeing the caterpillars I wondered what else was out so I took the camera and went around snapping pictures of the caterpillars and other wet things. The birds and ducks were preening their rain-soaked feathers and all the plants were dressed in glittering diamond raindrops. There is always a silver lining isn't there? The earth is really quite pretty after a rain.

The Sentry

Urchin Textures

Encased in Beauty

Plant Parts

Rain Kissed

Mona Lavender

Remnants

Tale of the Orchid

 Cassia Leaf

 Glistening Diamonds of Pink

Stooped

 Star Light Star Bright

Egg of the Giant Swallowtail

I hope you enjoyed this rainy stroll through my secret garden and don't forget to...

Stop and smell the roses

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Laura, these photos are fantastic...we've had rain rain and more rain and cold then yesterday the sun came out and we are now boiling... I'm a happy bunny at last...love the warm :)

Nichole Renee said...

Oh, Laura...Wow. Wow. Wow. I am blown away by this pictures! They are so colorful and dreamy and sublime! You found a silver lining encased in gold and studded with diamonds. Well done, dear friend!!

Destiny said...

Pop goes the color. I love the vibrant in your face pops of color along with the sparkle of the rain drops. "Glistening Diamonds of Pink" is my favorite.

WrightStuff said...

What stunning photographs. I particularly loved the pink diamonds. Just imagine if you could harvest them from flowers and make jewels... one can but dream!!

Laura said...

Thank you all so much for your comments! I would love to be able to pluck these little jeweled drops from the flowers....*sigh* Yes, one can but dream!