Chasing Butterflies on Lughnasadha

67 and cloudy this morning. Light showers, breezes interspersed with sunshine all morning and early afternoon.

Happy Lughnasadh! According to old Celtics tradition, this is the first day of fall, and usually it looks like it in our region, as we see tbe first tinged of yellow in trees and plants. Because of all the recent rain, everything is still verdant and green this year.

Still, we will see change begin. Days will cool more quickly in the evenings, and mornings will stay cool longer. The Joe Pye, Ironwood and goldenrod will soon be in bloom. And of course the days will be shorter. Paying attention to these changes makes me feel the rhythm of the year more keenly, and to appreciate the circle of life more deeply.

Perhaps the butterflies also feel change coming, for there have been many of them in the gardens, and a very busy. I spent some time while the sun was shining to try to catch photos of some of them. I missed the lone Monarch visitor but was thrilled to see it as these butterflies are a rare sight here.

Here are a few of the flutterers I saw:

I am not sure of the name of this one. Black, with blue and orange? I used to know it but now can't recall.

Where that elusive Monarch was, a split second before I snapped the picture. 

I believe this is a Summet Azure butterfly, very small and never stops moving long enough for a photo. 

One of the fritallaries, but I am not sure which one.

A tiger swallowtail. There was a similar black and white one too, that I missed.

It is surprising how much time disappeared as I wandered after the butterflies.  But what better way to lose an hour or so?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Flutterbys

We seem to have a lot of butterflies this year, and it's been just lovely. I took these photos the same afternoon. They really love the coneflowers and tall pink phlox and fireweed best, it seems. Except for that Great Spangled Fritillary who had a thing for the Squeezos (last photo)! We'd used the Squeezos to make tomato juice, and they were in a tote on the porch, waiting to be put back in the cellar top.

Black Swallowtail, I think? and Appalachian Tiger Swallowtail.

This guy swent right down in the tote several times. I was afraid he'd get stuck.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Roadside Milkweed

When I saw this bright patch by the side of the road, I had to stop and take pictures.

But who could resist this flurry of wings?

Milkweed and butterflies and bees! Summer is truly here, isn't it?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Butterflies, Flutter By

 They were everywhere Sunday morning--butterflies were all over the little cherry tree by our deck.

They even shared nicely with each other.

I think this is my favorite photo. I never knew they had that down on their backs.

They weren't alone in enjoying the tree. Many, many bees joined them. This one looks like a honeybee, but it's almost too big, isn't it?

By Monday morning, there were no butterflies on this little tree. Apparently the blossoms were over the pollination stage. But what a show we had for Easter.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Taking the Long Way Home

I have no photos of the storytelling sessions on Tuesday, because I was alone on this trip, no roadie hubby to take pictures. But on the way home, I decided to take my time. Along the way, I saw some beautiful sights:

This is an overlook on State Route 9 West, not far out of Berkeley Springs, WV. This point offers a view of three states. It is unusual for rivers in this part of West Virginia to run muddy, but heavy recent rains and the increased volume of construction work in the eastern counties contributed to high, muddy waters. I believe that is the Great Cacapon (pronounced CuCAYpun, with short u sounds) River below.

In the small community of Great Cacapon, an olde gas station stands boarded up. Larry believes stations built like this were usually bus stops. Anyone know if that is correct, or was it just the style of the times?

A side road promised a public river access so I drove down. Access, all right! The road ran right into the water! This was usually a low-water crossing, but with the river up, I don't think anyone would want to try it.

This is the low-water bridge? Ummm, no thanks. Not today.

A great blue heron flew off just as I approached, and there were birds everywhere by the water. On the way back to the main road, a spot of orange caught my eye:

Saddle Mountain--Abraham Lincoln's mother Nancy Hanks was supposedly born here.

A nice telescope allows travelers to get a close-up view,

and a sign give more historical information about the site.

After many more long miles, I was getting close to home when I thought I was seeing double. But no, the state is replacing road signs.

And finally, home. It was a beautiful ride, and I was glad to see it again, and to remember the many times I've traveled that road and the adventures we had.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Wild Life and Farm Life

Granddaughter Grace roamed the farm with my camera the other day while I was working on peaches. Here are some of the things she found interesting enough to photograph:

Billy BB (for Bad Butt) the Rooster struts his stuff in the chicken yard. Originally named Trampoline Man because he was found on Derek's trampoline one morning, he's taken to trying to flog any small people who enter the coop. The grandchildren love to collect eggs so his ornery new habit is a problem. Our solution is to arm them with a bucket of water which he does NOT like. He goes around fairly soaked when the grandkids are here. I believe I'll be looking for a new, nicer rooster in the future.

In the turkey pen, the turkeys are growing like crazy. They are now about 2 months old and are already half-grown.

Unlike the rooster, these hens (they are supposed to be all hens and so far that seems to be holding true) are calm and tame. Except: they hate going back in their house at night. Every night Larry goes down and has to catch each one and put it in the pen. We've never had this problem before with turkeys. These girls are just stubborn. But pretty, in their turkey-ish way.

Grace was able to catch some good photos of one type of butterfly currently inhabiting the flowerbeds. This year it is not at all unusual to see five different kinds of butterflies at one time on the flowers. This one, we believe is the Great Spangled Fritillary. These butterflies have no claw on their front feet and are called "brush-footed butterflies. If you enlarge Grace's photo you can kind of see the fuzzy front feet on this one. We also have Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Zebra Swallowtail, Black Swallowtails and Sulfur butterflies (those small active yellow ones that are so hard to photograph).

I believe the reason we have so many swallowtails is because of the coneflowers which they seem to love, and the abundance of Queen Anne's Lace in the meadow. This is one of their favorite foods.

For a long time, I thought these were Monarch butterflies, but closer inspection with my sister Theresa a few weeks ago identified the Great Spangled Fritillary. Monarchs, it seems, disdain our ridge and prefer the lower ground along the creeks.

What's in Bloom?

Sunday on the way back from town Larry and I took pictures of the wildflowers in bloom along Joe's Run. This isn't all of them, of course--there are many others, but these are what caught our eyes:


Rue Anemone is a small but brightly white flower often found growing in rocky areas and roadside banks. I just like its name. Why rue? To rue something means to regret it. And there is nothing to regret about this pristine little beauty. Although you can't see it in the photo, the center of this flower is green.

Long-spurred violets. Can you see the long spurs sticking out the back of the flowers? These are very pretty, with light blue petals and dark purple centers.
Spring beauties. I love the delicate stripes of pink radiating from the center. This flower is so small that unless you're looking for them, you'd overlook a patch of spring beauties. Once you've seen them, though, you will look for them every year. Their color varies from almost white to pink. This specimen was particularly colorful. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden says the tubers of spring beauties are edible, but I've never tried them.

White Trillium, or Trillium Grandiflorum, one of my favorite wildflowers. Along Joe's Run is this bank of trilliums:
It is breathtaking at this time of year, a mass of white and green. My photo doesn't do it justice. We take that way home every day while the trilliums are in bloom. Folklore has it that trilliums bloom about the same time the robins come back in the Spring, which is why a common name for another (usually red) member of the trillium family is wakerobin.

These next two photos were taken around April 18, 2008. I was curious as to how this Spring compared to last as far as things in bloom, etc. Here's what I found:
Black Swallowtails were in abundance on the lilacs. While the lilacs are blooming, I've seen only a few butterflies so far and no black swallowtails.

The pear tree was in bloom and the tiger swallowtails were also numerous. I loved watching this one literally tearing into the blossoms--I could hear it working and bits of the flower fell off as the butterfly dove in. I had never observed a butterfly so closely before and I was amazed at its industry.

This year the pear tree bloomed several weeks ago, not necessarily a good thing because blossom and fruit are more susceptible to frosts and freezes if they bloom early. I've seen a few tiger swallowtails, but not nearly as many as last year.

The Bounteous Season

Monarch on a butterfly bush,

peaches on the porch.

All's right in the garden. (Except for a few weeds, that is. More than a few, actually. A lot, to tell the truth. But then I'm a storyteller, so who knows what the truth really is?)


Bounteous--what a great word. Liberal, generous, munificent. That describes this time of year precisely.


The gardens are laden with produce. We share easily with the pigs, assured that more will replace what we give. Friends and family leave laden with food--potatoes, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, jars of jam and jelly, fresh eggs and herbs.



Dinners are made of salads and vegetables straight from the garden. We check the corn daily to see the size of the kernels. Not yet, but soon. Peaches piled in a basket on the porch nag at my mind all day while I'm at work. Yet I know that if I can't get to them, the pigs will be seriously happy to take care of them for me.

Bounteous. Yes, that's the right word.

The end of July-beginning of August is a frenetic time. Tomatoes start to ripen in bushels, cucumbers turn into swollen bats, and we try to fend off bugs and blight so that everything produces as long as possible while we struggle to put up as much as possible in the small amounts of free time we have from work, mowing the grass and everyday household chores.

But boy do we eat good! What can be more pleasurable and flavorful than a ripe peach, juice dripping off my chin as I lean forward to keep it off my shirt?