Asters~Its what's for dinner

A few days ago, I set out to do a little bit of exploring and see what was new in the wild kingdom. I went to two of my local favorite 'hot spots', areas that in the past have always had good things to see. At the first stop, a wild, overgrown area near a stream just a 3 minute drive from my house, I found the first of several Monarch butterflies I was to see on this day. What a complete surprise it was to see this beautiful butterfly on such a cloudy, dreary day.

In both places that I visited, there were wild asters in bloom all over the place. Part of the sunflower family, these blooms were being enjoyed by a number of different species.

The bees were also enjoying the small white and yellow blooms. Once these flowers dry they will provide winter seed for small wintering songbirds.

Ooops, I caught these two in the act! I saw them fly passed me together but didn't attempt to follow them. Just by coincidence I found the flower on which they landed.

The black-eyed Susans are fading away but are still adding some bright sunny color to the natural landscape. Another member of the sunflower family, these happy blooms have provided food for butterflies and bees and other insects while in bloom and will again sustain life once their seed heads dry and are munched up by songbirds.

Here is another interesting wildflower/shrub. Its a Heart's-a-bustin', or Strawberry Bush. Looks like they have busted alright. These seeds are eaten by browsing deed during the winter months.

SALE!! I've put quite a few items on sale in my Etsy shop until the end of October. All of my stained glass owl ornaments have been marked down along with all rainbow colored items including stained glass pieces signs, hot air balloon and small rainbow suncatchers.

Wishing everyone a safe and happy weekend.

Day of the Dragonfly and other curiosities

Thursday afternoon, I decided to get out of the house for a few and take a short ride down to the Tennessee River to see if there was anything interesting going on. After about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, my workshop just gets a bit too warm and uncomfortable to work in. The first stop was a local boat launch area with lots of native vegetation. This big beautiful dragonfly caught my eye and I headed on over to see if I couldn't get a shot of it.

This dragonfly turned out to be the most cooperative dragonfly I've ever come across. It must have been in need of a rest since it let me photograph it from all angles while fumbling with the settings on my camera. I'm not sure what kind it is~my field guide lists a few that are similar to this one but the descriptions don't match 100%.

The closeup of the wings shows a little bit of wear and tear around the edges.

I like this shot from the back end~it reminds me of an airplane ready to take off into the wild blue yonder.

After about 5 minutes it was tired of me bothering it and it took off to find some peace and quiet.

The second stop along the Tennessee River was a local county park. This passionflower and many more like it was found in an area allowed to grow wild~my favorite kind of place to explore because you never know what kind of interesting flora or fauna will be found. According to the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers, "The name relates to the resemblance of the floral parts to aspects of the crucifixion story. The 10 petal-like parts represent the disciples, excluding Peter and Judas, the 5 stamens the wounds Jesus received, the knob-like stigmas the nails, the fringe the crown of thorns." A very interesting bloom, indeed. Another interesting fact about this vine is that its a host plant for fritillary butterfly caterpillars.

This is the fruit of the passionflower, a passion fruit. Its an edible fruit, this one needs to ripen a bit more. I can't recall if I've ever tried one--there were plenty of these fruits hanging around, hopefully this year I'll get my hands on one and give it a try.

Let the wild places be wild

There's a little side road not far from my house that I've been meaning to check out for the longest time. When I travel the highway and look over at this spot, there's a riot of yellow, so I knew that there must be some good stuff down this way. Wow, I was not disappointed. There's a small stream that flows threw this area and the native vegetation was in full bloom. There were lots of butterflies and dragonflies in the area, along with a couple of hummingbirds and other songbirds calling from the trees along the stream bank.

The riot of yellow was actually all these small sunflowers. What a great food source right now for the butterflies and bees. Later, when these dry they will be a valuable winter food source for the native songbirds that call this area home along with our visiting winter migrants.

These ripening elderberries with help nourish our native songbirds and will provide fuel for those that migrate South for the winter.

Found along the banks of the small stream was large patches of Jewelweed, or Spotted Touch-Me-Not. There was a hummingbird feeding on one of these blooms, but I wasn't quick enough to capture it.

Really an interesting plant, I love the orange yellow color of these flowers.

There were also a dozen or so Bull Thistles in bloom. The flowers look quite puffy and soft, but the stems and leaves are quite thorny. I don't what the 'value' of these are, but I'm sure that the seeds are consumed by songbirds in the winter months.

This is definately an area that I'm going to have to come back to very soon.