The End of Summer

It's been so busy around here and I don't even have kids going back to school! Maybe it's the end of summer, when you get that rushed feeling that the holidays are fast approaching and there are so many things you wanted to get done before they sneak up on you. Or maybe it's too many adventures scheduled too close together. Whatever the reason, summer always seems to get the best of me...I end up not being as creative, not working out as much, not eating as healthy...summer seems to be a time to indulge in vice and laziness. Maybe it's the heat, maybe it's just my DNA wanting to run barefoot, ride my bike and play outside until dark. Summer is coming to an end. And that means it's time to start being healthy, active and creative again.

Painted Roses

Summer Flowers

I got a good kick-start with this painting app for the iPhone called GLAZE. I learned about it from another photographer and have been having a grand ole time creating works of art on my iPhone. iPhoneography never ceases to amaze me and it's a great way to step back into my creative self. Enjoy the upcoming weekend everyone and above all, be safe and be creative! xo

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

A Springtime Giveaway!

Sweet perfumes scent the balmy air,

and life is brimming everywhere.

~Paul Laurence Dunbar

Springtime makes me happy! I love seeing everything in the garden blooming and all the beautiful creatures coming out to play! In honor of this beautiful season, I'm doing a Springtime Giveaway! Enjoy these lovely images taken this weekend in my garden and then scroll down to see details on the prize and how to enter!

A Momentary Spring

Bromeliad and Bokeh

Guava Flowers

Pink seems to be the predominate color in my garden right now...

Pink x 2

The pompom (or powder puff) bush is bursting with spiky pink goodness:

And even my orchids have begun showing off their various shades of pinks:

Deep Pinks

Pale Pinks

Patterned Pinks

Magenta

Even our Bunco group is getting into Spring with a "Garden Party" themed bunco! I made these cute garden cupcakes for the party:

(idea stolen from the fabulous book Hello, Cupcake!)

Sally & I don our best Garden Hats (and for those Big Bang Theory fans, my pink & green floral dress is the same one Bernadette wore when she said Yes to Howard's proposal. sweet!)

How about a Spring Giveaway? I'm giving away to one lucky person, my beautiful hand-painted Butterfly Box which is filled with my Butterfly Note Cards and organic butterfly seeds I cultivated myself! Now, you can start your own Butterfly Garden! :)

All you need to do to have a chance to win is become a fan of my Photography Facebook Page or click the button on my blog that says "Join This Site" and become a member of my clubhouse! Then, leave a comment   about your favorite childhood garden memory! (If you are already a fan or member, just leave a comment for me so I know you were here!) I'll use a random number generator next week to pick a winner! And, here's another little incentive...if you are an artist or crafter, a little extra something will be in the box! :)  Good luck everyone and I'll leave you with one more image from my garden:

Reaching

Nature's Beauty

Thought I would share a couple of pictures of Nature's Beauty taken yesterday with my new camera, the Nikon D7000! I really love it so far. It has a quiet mode shutter speed which allowed me to get really close to the hummingbird without scaring him off. I've had the camera for over a week but just yesterday finally broke it out of it's box and headed outdoors with it. Nichole and I have decided to take a break from our iPhone missions since we are at a good stopping place of 25 completed. We will do the next 25 over the summer. I think the iPhone mission has made me a bit lazy with my blog. I miss making things, painting and inspiring you all with my artsy adventures. I'm recommitting to more artful posts this Spring! I've been trying to find the time to blog about the Mad Hatter Tea Party but it's taking some time to get all the details written out. I want you all to feel like you were there! So, here are a couple of pics to tie you over until I finish that blog post. :)

First Blush

 Little Hummingbird

Captured Blooms

Flowers, Butterflies and Hummingbirds

A storm is brewing as I type this post. The constant singing of a female mockingbird has been temporarily replaced with the roll of thunder. Tiny specks of rain land on the window, each drop a bit larger than the one before it. The wind starts to wail. An intense tropical downpour. The first of the season and much needed. Seems I got home just in time from a morning out shooting flowers, butterflies and hummingbirds at Butterfly World. Here are a few of my favorites from today. Enjoy!

Summer Days

 Cains Birdwing

Pink Coral 

 Water drops are the latest fashion!

 Russelia Sarmentosa

Winged Rose

Sparkling Violet Ear Hummingbird on Takeoff

Exploration #7: World of Color

Exploration #7: World of Color
Collect paint chips from a paint or hardware store. Find colors you respond to in the world. Attempt to match them using the chips. Make notes of where you saw the colors.


I had grand plans for this Exploration task: to go outside and match the paint chips to things in my garden and surrounding yard. I would take photographs of all the glorious things I would find on top of the paint chips, the two colors melding into one. However, this was probably not a great idea considering it was nearly 100 degrees with 100% humidity. Also, it was not easy to find colors to match because all the plants are done blooming. After spending two hours finding just two items,  I got heatstroke.

A floral stem from my Asparagus fern

Yellow Marigolds from my garden

I then decided to do what was shown in the book and match the paint chips to different colors found in my air-conditioned home and just write them on the chips. Click on the picture to see it large and read the colors.

Matching Sami's (my tortoise shell cat) fur was the most challenging. I had about 10 chips of different browns and only one matched some of her fur. She has so many colors! Even the black in her fur isn't true black. And every time I stuck a paint chip into her fur, she turned around and yelled at me. :)

Despite the frustration I felt in not being able to find a bunch of things in nature due to the heat, I'm keeping the paint chips for Springtime when things are in bloom and will continue my plan of matching colors. I definitely took enough from the hardware store to last a lifetime!

The Wildflower Thicket

I was able to spend the entire day of Friday outside working in the garden and the yard.  The weather was gorgeous and nature was in abundance.  Of course there are always things outside that distract me from the task at hand and I soon found myself down at my wildflower thicket with camera in hand:

Part of my wildflower thicket.  It's about 40 feet long by 5 feet wide

and here are some of the things I love about it:

Bee on the Pea

Dragonfly in the Light of Day

Ladybug Hugs

Old Field Toadflax

Yellow Vigna, also known as Cowpea

Of course I did manage to make it to my garden and do some work.
Spring in full bloom:

Cuban Buttercup

Munching Monarch Caterpillar

The Marigolds I planted are now blooming in yellow and orange

One of my three Passion Vines

Pink Pentas...I also have white and red blooming.

One of my Plumeria plants 

and

another

 I planted red, yellow, pink and white Plumeria.

I love my Powder Puff bush.  Every year it gets bigger!

My Strawflower bloomed a twin!
 Two flower heads fused together on one stem.

And finally, a Bachelor Button ready to bloom with a little texture added:

Here's wishing everyone a wonderful weekend full of floral delights and maybe even some ladybug hugs!

Mulch Love,