Spring has sprung

Happy vernal equinox! Spring is my favorite season, or is it fall? Hmmm, I suppose I love them both. Being such an important day I took some time to go exploring. I do love exploring the woodlands that surround me this time of year. Its quite exciting to see a little sprout of something make its way through the leaf litter on the forest floor. Its still a bit early for wildflowers to be blooming, but I did manage to find a few. The most abundant of the woodland wildflowers here seems to be the Toadstool Trillium. I've come across so many of them in my search, but have yet to find one opened. The one wildflower I did find was this little type of flower. I have yet to identify it but it was so pretty I had to include it here. There were more mystery plants on today's journey. Before the spring turns into summer I hope to have these figured out. These I do know, they are Mayapples. Although just emerging and small here they will grow to a good size and produce flowers beneath the cover of the leaves. The beech trees are still livening up the forest by holding on to last years leaves. Soon they will drop them in favor of new ones. I'm thankful I had the opportunity to find some lovely loves today. Tomorrow the weather will change to rain/sleet/snow. Here's hoping the first spring was joyous for you as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To celebrate the arrival of the new season, I've decided to have a sale in my Etsy shop. All items have been discounted 10%, no coupon code needed. The sale runs through March 24.

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.

Butterflies on a Sunday afternoon

I've been trying so hard to stay focused and stay in my shop and continue working on my frog and not wander the countryside looking for nature's beauties. It worked for awhile, but Sunday afternoon this lovely blue butterfly landed in my yard and I knew that it was all over. I put my stuff away, grabbed the camera and headed to a local county park to see what was happening. I admit I have a problem~I'm a nature junkie and have to get my fix but I really don't think I need help...sometimes my husband thinks I do...
By the way, the above butterfly is called a Red-spotted Purple. Its considered a mimic butterfly~~it mimics the coloring and markings of a similar butterfly called a Pipevine Swallowtail. The Pipevine is toxic so by mimicking it the Red-spotted Purple avoids being eaten up by birds.

Here's an update on the frog suncatcher taken Monday afternoon. All of the pieces have been foiled and with any luck I'll have this piece soldered on Tuesday--if I feel up to it.

Back to the Sunday butterflies. This butterfly is the Pipevine Swallowtail. I caught up with it on the shores of the Tennessee River probing the sand for mineral salts. This is a common activity in butterflies. Unfortunately, this one wouldn't open its wings so I could show the similarities to the above Red-spotted Purple. The undersides are just gorgeous. This butterfly looks pretty fresh like its just come out of its cocoon recently.

Another flying beauty found probing for salts is what I think is a Tawny Emperor. Their markings can vary somewhat within the specie. The patterning and coloring are just gorgeous.

Similar to the bold orange and black Monarch~this is another mimic butterfly. This is a Viceroy butterfly. Monarch butterflies are distasteful to birds, so again by mimicking the colorings and markings of another specie this butterfly avoids becoming lunch.

While checking the shoreline of a smaller river that feeds into the Tennessee River, I spotted this beautiful American Lotus. Funny, I have never ever seen this lovely flower up close and personal and just by coincidence I'm working on the frog suncatcher that has a yellow water lily as part of the background. These types of coincidences happen fairly often to me. A few years ago, I was working on a different dragonfly project. The day that I started cutting the glass pieces a very large dragonfly flew into my shop~this is before I put a screen door up. Hummingbirds have made their way into my shop also~around the time I was working on hummingbirds. Good thing I have the screen door up now--I'm going to be working on a bigger owl project soon.

Another lovely find for the day was this Cardinal Flower in bloom. This wildflower is a favorite of hummingbirds~insects find it difficult to get at the nectar in this long narrow tube like flower. Nice to see this flower in bloom, hummingbirds are starting their southward migration and by having little pit stops like these flowers, those amazing flying jewels stand a better chance at reaching their wintering destinations.

A little bit of time on the river

In the middle of last week, to celebrate our anniversary, my husband and I paid a visit to the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge-Busseltown Unit~just a couple of miles away from where we live. The river is pretty peaceful and quiet during the week, I'm sure it was pretty packed for Labor Day weekend-boats of all kinds, jet skis and people enjoying the last holiday of summer. Sometimes, we get lucky enough to see a big barge moving product up and down the river.
Looking south and looking upriver. Sounds funny, doesn't it? Rivers in North America are supposed to flow south-this one doesn't. The Tennessee River flows southwest out of the Knoxville area, west across northern Alabama, then takes a turn north and flows through West Tennessee until it dumps into the Ohio which eventually empties into the Mississippi. We've spent some time swimming in this river, but its not all that clean. You come out of the water feeling that you need a shower.

Lovely golden yellow wildflowers are in bloom all over this area.

Across the river are some nice looking bluffs. The water reaches pretty good depths near these bluffs, usually 50-60 feet deep. The Tennessee River splits the state of Tennessee into three sections- East, Middle and West. We're on the West Tennessee side looking east at Middle Tennessee.

A good find for the day included this White Tail Dragonfly. It was patrolling a small area looking for prey. I got to watch this one as it munched down whatever it had caught. After its meal it was off again looking for another victim.

The purples of autumn are starting to bloom. I'm not sure of what these are but they are very pretty. I was kind of bummed out--when we visited about a month ago there was lots more interesting things in bloom. A lot of it got mowed down, probably in anticipation of all the weekend visitors that were going to use this area for their good times.

Here's an interesting wildflower~Heart's-a-bustin, or Strawberry Bush. These haven't busted yet, but when they do the seed head opens to reveal purple insides and bright orange seeds. I'll have to remember to come back and get a shot of these once they pop.

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.

treasures by the roadside

My husband calls me a freak of nature...its so true. I'm not as 'bad' as I used to be. Everywhere we went I would have a pair of binoculars around my neck just in case an awesome bird would come into view. Or the time I got lost in the woods exploring...just a few more feet and I'll turn around, I said to myself. A few feet turned into miles. I did eventually find my way back~in the meantime I found so many lovely things since the woods here are so full of diversity. Getting lost was so well worth it.

For today's exploration I didn't stray far off the beaten path. All of these beauties were found alongside the road within walking distance of my house. Zoom, zoom, zoom, everyone drives by way over the speed limit not noticing the beauty that there is to behold.

Soon, the county will come through with their power mowers knocking all of these down to ground level. To them these are all weeds. To me they are treasures.