Category Archives: photos

Seeing the world through my viewfinder.

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Visitors to the Front Garden

Monarch butterfly

This evening, after my daily 15 minutes of weeding, I sat down in my front garden to enjoy the flowers and flying things.

I saw a female hummingbird last week, so I was only moderately surprised (but still super thrilled) to see a male ruby-throated hummingbird stopping to enjoy nearly every single milkweed bloom, sharing space with the giant fuzzy bumblebee that was also enjoying the buffet.

What DID surprise me was the monarch butterfly flitting overhead. It didn’t stop to taste any of the flowers — it just fluttered in loops and figure-eights above the garden.

When it finally lit on a tree branch, I stood and slowly crept up to it with my cameraphone snapping away.

Butterfly camera roll

It let me get within a couple inches of it, and didn’t fly away until my phone and I had backed off.

Enjoy the milkweed, Your Majesty.

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A Surprise Bloom

Tulip

I saw an unexpected pop of color this evening as I looked out from my sunroom. Once I threw on my slip-on Skechers and went out to investigate, at the base of the butterfly bush I found this lovely tulip.

Which I didn’t plant.

That means it’s been there under my nose for six springs and either never bloomed or never been noticed. Nothing else in that bed is that particular color, though, so I can’t imagine I would have missed that pop of coral.

Welcome to the Early Spring Border, little tulip.

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Portrait of Mei

Mei Under the Tree
[25 December 2017]

This old lady. She and Connor are almost besties now, although she still won’t climb up and sleep with him in his bed like she will with me. She was pretty displeased when we first brought Connor home. so seeing them play together now makes me smile.

(She also didn’t much care for moving to this house almost five years ago — in fact, she hid behind the toilet on moving day and wouldn’t come out until we were upstairs in bed that night.)

Mei will be 14 years old this Spring. Sometimes she moves a little slower down the stairs than she used to, and sometimes I take note of her now-bony haunches. Other times, though, she tears ass through the house like she’s always done.

I suspect we still have many good years left with Mei Kitty, but I tend not to take the cuddles and the playtime for granted anymore.