There are orange daylilies, then there are orange daylilies

There are orange daylilies and then there are orange daylilies. When you look closely at the common roadside orange it actually very beautiful. Just don't want it in the flowerbeds with your other daylilies. The common daylilies spread by shooting off underground and a new plant appears "over there". With the others the plant just keeps getting bigger around. They stay where you put them. Common Roadside Orange

Common Orange Double

I call this a Common Orange Double because I have never seen it in any daylily catalogs, and it does appear to be fairly common. Especially among my friends, since I have given them starts of it. It does not multiple like the common roadside daylily, but like all the others.

Mauna Loa

Orange Velvet

Eye-Yi-Yi

Orange Vols

So you see even in orange the daylilies don't look anything alike.
Then I just had to throw in another photo of the Open Hearth daylily,
it sort of goes with these.

Open Hearth

I bought 15 new varieties at the festival last Friday.

Won't be seeing those blooms until next year,

but I still have more post of this years blooms.

So if you like daylilies, be watching.

Cabbage White Butterflies

About a week ago I photographed this Cabbage White in my flowerbed at the front door. There also was a very small black butterfly that I tried to photograph but was not able to capture. It ended out being on me when I went back in the house, and scared me when it started down my leg. I was able to catch it, not with my camera though, and released it outside.

This past Saturday I was out photographing the Cabbage White butterflies in my yard.

Again I saw the small black butterfly, but again was not able to capture it with my camera.

But I did capture this action shot. Not very good photographically speaking,

but I just had to post it anyway.

No I did not know what I had until I got it in the computer.

This photo is where "Photos For Fun" comes in.

Various Pink Daylilies

Some of my pink daylilies that are blooming. Becky Lynn

Strawberry Candy and Decatur Apricot

Will Return

Canadian Border Control

Sweet Summer Valentine

I will be at the Oakes Daylily Festival today. The weather report is for rain, so we are going rain or shine. Hopefully the rain will wait until we are at least on the way home from the festival. A friend and I go every year. We pick out daylilies from the ones they have ready to buy at the festival. The daylilies at the festival are priced less than in the catalog and they are still large enough for us to divide. That way we get twice the daylilies for the price, even though they are already such a bargain at the festival. We usually get from 6 to 10 new varieties each year. The ones I have shown here were all purchased at the festival in years past.

Open Hearth Daylily

Open Hearth Daylily, I have had this daylily for about 15 years.

One of the first daylilies I ever bought.

Oakes Daylilies is where I buy all of my daylilies. They are friends of the family, but they also give the customer very large starts when you order. They ship everywhere, but I just pick mine up. Now I go to the festival every year and buy the ones they have picked out (at great bargains). When I get my catalog every year it is so hard, I want them all. But I make myself wait until the festival. Jimmy has already prepared the place for this years daylilies, as the festival is this Friday.

The Daylilies are blooming

This is one of my old fashioned daylilies. One of the first I acquired.

Of my 80+- varieties this is one of the few that I do not know the name.Notice the next 2 photos the same daylily has a hint of a double.

I have only noticed this in the last couple of years, but it is on the same plant as the blooms that do not have this center, so it is not a hybrid of the first one.

You know I have to get up close.

And then even closer.

At our old house we had five cedar trees that we planted one daylily variety around each tree. This was one of the daylilies that we had enough of to go all the way around one of the cedar trees. As we transplanted I also gave plenty away too.

Hope all of you are doing well.

We are still getting a LOT of rain in New Market,

not as much in Rockwood.

Foxglove in the yard

Last year at the Oakes Daylilies Festival I decided to buy some other plants that I have never had in my flowerbeds. One of them was a Foxglove plant. It only had one stem, and I was a little disappointed.
But this year it has multipled.

And has given me some photo ops.

I don't know what colors Foxglove come in,

but I plan on looking at them again this year at the daylily festival.

I hope they bloom again, I don't even know that.

If they don't rebloom, I guess they are done for the year.

Just hope not, they are pretty, don't you think?

I have been trying to get around to see everybody.

Not sure when life will slow down some.

I know it could be worse, so I shouldn't be grumbling.

Meeting my blogger friends

I met Shelley (left) and Betsy (right) yesterday. And George and Gregg, but they aren't in the pictures. They were behind the cameras. Shelley is looking at one of the other cameras. George and Greg were snapping away, we didn't know which direction to look. They kept us busy for a short time with the cameras, then it was our turn.

Once Shelley, Betsy and I started talking we didn't hush. Took one good breath about 3 hours into the visit. And we all laughed at the 1 second of silence. All you bloggers must have had HOT ears mid day on Friday, because none of you were left out of the conversation. Greg and George were so sweet not to get impatient with us 3 girls.

It was a blast, it was as George said, "Meeting Old Friends For The First Time". That was exactly what it was. When I left it was like when I meet an old friend for lunch, and I think of the things I wanted to say, but forgot. I think we could have met for a early breakfast and still been talking at a late supper, and still not run out of something to say.

It was great and I would recommend trying to meet some of your best blogging buddies. Would love to meet more of you, remember I am just one exit away from the Gatlinburg/Sevierville exit off I-40. The exit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, so if you are ever in the area please let me know.

Jen, I received your hug from Shelley!

My door of butterflies and moths

When I photographed my first butterfly digitally I printed it, added a magnet to the back and placed it on the door going out to my sun porch. Started at the top, right below the stained glass transom of Chickadees and white dogwoods.

Never dreamed the magnets would keep growing to this point. Some of them I do have the wing open and the wing closed photos, but not all. The great part about this, the majority of them are from my own yard, or my wonderful next door neighbor's yard. He is wonderful because he allows me to wander all over his yard with my camera in hand. Actually calls me on occasion and says "This is your wonderful neighbor, come quick with the camera." You think I am kidding about the first part of that, but he actually called me Sunday and said that. Another reason he and his wife are such wonderful neighbors is they kept the peacocks run off my house roof and back deck while I was on vacation. But back to the butterfly magnets.

Left side of the door, and the right side of the door. The door looks similiar to my blog right sidebar, except the butterflies are cut out. Just in case you noticed they are NOT sized in relation to each other.

Not listed in any particular order, I have

Spicebush Swallowtail

Red Spotted Purple Swallowtail

Pipevine Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail

Dark Tiger Swallowtail

Zebra Swallowtail

Zebra Heliconian

Julia Heliconian (just realised not on the door, or my sidebar)

Common Wood Numph (taken in the GSMNP)

Question Mark

Hairstreak (not sure which one)

Monarch

Gulf Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary

Hackberry Emperor

American Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Common Buckeye

White Peacock (taken in Florida)

Luna Moth

Yellow-Spotted Tiger Moth

Sulphurs

Skippers

Long Tailed Skipper

Silver Spotted Skipper

Common Checkerd Skipper

Dustywing (not absolutely sure which one)

Mourning Cloak (last added to the door, photographed the day I left on vacation)

Just realised I do not have the Cabbage White, Checkered White, or the Great Southern White on the door. I have photographed all 3. I have several of the Skippers and Sulphurs on the door, but they are hard to id, and I have several different ones of both in my yard. Gave up on trying to id them. I just say Sulphurs or Skippers and let it go at that most of the time. An example is the Sleepy Orange Sulphur or the Little Yellow Sulphur. Then there is the Common Sulphur or the Orange Sulphur, not to be confused with the Sleepy Orange Sulphur. Just makes my head spin.

This past Sunday I photographed a new butterfly. There is something about it when I get one, I could pour over the books for hours and still never figure out which one I just photographed. I sent the not so good photographs to Hap from New Hope and he identified it as the Tawny Emperor. I am not sure how he does it, but once Hap tells me the name I go to my book and the web site I visit and go "Yep, that's it." , and can even pick out the detail that makes it so, or not so. Hap has never told his story, at least not to me, but he does a fantastic job everytime I send him something, whether it is a bird or butterfly. I am posting the door for Hap. I promised him I would do this a LONG time ago. Hap, sorry it took me so long to do it. I do not have the Tawny Emperor on the door yet, hoping for a better photo.

I also want to say I had photographed half of these before I ever even saw a Monarch. They may be the most common in the United States, but definitely not in my yard. I now have lots of photographs of the Monarch with the wings together, but just a few with the wings open.

I also have photographs of a Salt March Moth or Acrea Moth (called both), taken on my spider plant on the front porch. Not documented to be in East Tennessee. Shown on the right sidebar, but not on the door. The Yellow-Spotted Tiger Moth (is on the door) is not documented to be in East Tennessee either, but I photographed it in Newport, Tennessee.

I told Hap on Sunday that I think the butterflies have notified all the other butterflies this is the place to be. I am not sure what the draw is, but I love it. I enjoy the butterflies more than the birds (sorry, to my birding blog buddies), and would love to add the plants that will help them. I do see them on my zinnia blooms and coneflower blooms more than anything else I have. I have never seen zinnia listed on anything I have read about butterflies. I am on a country road that it appears nobody sprays here. There are hayfields around me too.

Well, I am sure everybody has noticed I am not blogging much at all. Didn't even do my May monthly events post at the end of May, and May 2009 was the most eventful month I had since I started blogging, my 2nd grandson was born on May 7. If you haven't seen him his mother's blog can be viewed at www.articulateonpaper.blogspot.com , just had to make that plug there. The long story short (as I hear Alice at work say everyday) is, I don't know where I am headed with blogging. I have not visited anybody (so don't feel slighted at all) since before I left on vacation. And I know I need to. Also haven't posted but one other post since I came back.

I have been working on knitting projects, pulling weeds in the flowerbeds, my website, and I have joined Etsy. Etsy is for my cards, photos and my knitting. It is slow going adding to Etsy.

But the great news is I get to meet Shelley, Betsy and George on Friday morning. Shelley is coming to Tennessee and George, Betsy and I are going to meet her. Can't believe my Rockwood house is so close to George and Betsy and it takes Shelley visiting to get us to meet each other. I am so very excited about this!

Just realised I have been working on this post for an hour and half. This is why I do not have time to blog.

Tree Swallows in birdhouse on deck - Part 2

We arrived home from vacation just in time to witness the

Tree Swallows as they were learning to fly.

Or not.

Two still in the birdhouse, that seem to not want to leave the comfort of home.

The one in the background is one of the babies that has come out.

The juvenile is gray brown instead of the glossy greenish blue of the adult.

In the last photo you can see the baby is not too happy about not being fed,

but they are trying to get the 2 still in the birdhouse to fly.

Vacation was not much of a photography vacation.

We had a great time with the family, didn't think much about photography.

Click here to see the first post about these Tree Swallows on my deck.

Notice the split in the birdhouse, you can see why we never thought the birds would use it.