Butterflies in the yard

Most of my flowers this year were destroyed by the hail storm of 4/27/11, or the repairmen that came to my house. I did have a few flowers and the butterflies are still coming around. I don't have near as many zinnia as I usually do because they were just beginning to come up when the roofers came. Then about the time a few more came up the gutter replacement happened. I just keep saying next year we will have our flowers back.

I am just glad some butterflies have decided to stop for a visit. Right now my Crepe Myrtles are helping too. Don't think I have ever noticed the butterflies on the Crepe Myrtles before this year, maybe they are 2nd choice to all my other blooms. And as you can see I still preferred to photograph the butterfly on the zinnia (one of the few I have).

Review and interview with Wendy

My friend, Wendy, at Wall to Wall Books has a review of Wendy's book (yep, same first name)and an interview with Wendy. Hope you will check it out. Wendy has her book (post below this one) download for $0.99 this weekend only. Downloads are normally $2.99. Her short story download is now free. Think it will remain that way, at least for a while.


Wendy has another blog I follow, It's Just Me.
Some of you might know Wendy from there.

And my daughter has a blog here, about being a writer.

Wendy's 1st book

My daughter, Wendy, has self published her first novel.
It is now available for ebooks.
The link for the Kindle is here.
The link for the Nook is here.

The printed copy should be available very soon on Amazon.

I bought my Nook edition today, but I have already read it twice.
My sister-in-law couldn't put it down, she read it in less than 24 hours.

Surprise Lilies for Starr Lillie

This is the sight all over east Tennessee right now.
One time I used one of my photographs of these lilies for my niece Starr Lillie,
without thinking about her middle name.

Now I think of her everytime I see them bloom.
Today is her daddy's birthday, but this post goes to Starr.

For those of you that don't understand why the name, I will explain.
In the spring the greenery shoots up with the daffodils, even appears to be a daffodil, but it never blooms. The greenery fades, along with the daffodils. Then late July or early August upshoots the flower stem, with buds aplenty.

Hope everybody is doing well, and has a blessed day.

Odds and Ends

Even though so many of my flowers were destroyed by the hail storms of 4/27/2011 I do still have a few visiting butterflies. I also got a quick glance of the Clearwing Moth (so commonly called Hummingbird Moth, although there are 2 different Clearwing Moths)

The most unusual place I have ever seen a bird lay it's egg.
Guess it was because of the color on the right of way post.
No, I do not know what happened, because I forgot about it for a few days.
When I went back to check there was no sign of it.

My new knit designs

I have been designing this summer, while at home getting the repairs completed from all the damage caused during the storms 4/27/11.
Audrey modeling her suntop and then her sundress. The sundress pattern is with a test knitter right now in hopes of selling this pattern.

I have also been designing lace gloves. The teal pair has a ruffle at the cuff.
Not sure I am going to publish this pattern, but it is also
with a test knitter right now.

The cream colored lace gloves, is a different pattern.
The stitch is called drooping dayflower, which instantly caught my eye.
I took the drooping dayflower stitch and designed a glove around it.
This pattern has already been with the test knitter,
and the pattern has been added to Ravelry for purchase.
And I sold my first pattern within 24 hours.
If you are a Ravelry member click here for the link to the pattern.
Ravelry does require a login, if you are a knitter and don't
belong you should join, it is free.

The rains and storms are in East Tennessee again,
so temporarily my repairs are on hold.

Hope all of you are doing ok.

Purple Coneflowers this morning

It was still early, so the shadows are more than I like in the photos.
But notice the difference in the flowers.
The top photo is a typical coneflower bloom.
The next one is more flat than Coneflowers usually appear.

The 3rd one is my favorite. I love how the petals are straight down.

As you can the roofers didn't kill all my plants close to the front of the house.

Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend. Happy Birthday to my friend Jan.

Beautiful morning

The yard is beginning to recover a little from the hail damage of 4/27/11. I have one bloom on two different hydrangeas. You can see just a little hail damage on the greenry.

My daylilies are going to bloom, but it appears that all my asiatic and oriental lily bulbs have been eaten by something since last year. I had a 12 ft, by 3 ft patch, and a single row about 20 ft long. Not one single sprout this year. I don't know what else other than some critter must have enjoyed the taste. Thank goodness they don't like daylilies.

The roofers came today and are hard at work.

Spring keeps getting better

Love birds are flying everywhere. They are fighting over the boxes, but I am sure soon they will have all that straightened out between them.My small purple wisteria. And my white wisteria on the arbor in the backyard. Someday it will be as large as the one we had in Halls, but it still has a way to go.

This morning from the front porch

This was the veiw from the front porch 45 minutes ago.

Spring has turned pink today

The Flowering Almonds have just started to open.
They will be gorgeous in a few more days.

See the spideweb below?

My hyacinth bulbs were transplanted from Rockwood.
I didn't even know what color they were going to be.
The bulbs were planted in the grass and the bulbs were just
about to nothing when we moved them. They are so pretty,
sure am glad we moved them home.

Daffodils that look like peonies

I bought these daffodil bulbs from Brecks years ago, but the first years they
weren't even pretty, because they didn't develop correctly.
Now they develop and are very pretty, but they are so full the stems won't even support them. I just give up and cut them and bring them in the house to enjoy.

Oh, and they smell heavenly.

Spring is in the air--with Granny's daffodils

Granny Sorrells daffodils are my first real sign of spring is here.

Such a gorgeous day outside today,
and Granny's daffodils are getting thicker every year.

Eagle at Tierra Verde, Florida

I took these photographs February 2011. I posted photographs taken February 2009 at the same location, click here to see the earlier post. The photographs then were of what I thought was a 3rd year eagle. So is this the 5th year, or has the 3rd year eagle gone and this is one of the original parent eagles?

Sorry, the photographs aren't closer, there is a pond between the nest and me. With signs that people are not allowed any closer, due to the eagle nest.

I retire the end of the month. I will see if I am able to get back to blogging, or if retirement will still have me too busy to sit in front of a computer.

Dallas Star Daylily

This photograph was taken 2 days ago. This is my last daylily hurrah for the year.

I bought this one in 2009. The book says "Masses of star-shaped lavender pink blooms". For this to be a very divided plant this is great, specially late in the year like this. I can't wait to see this one as the plant gets larger. It is suppose to be a mid-season bloomer, but oh well, who is complaining about beautiful daylilies in September? Not me.

It is a beautiful day outside and I have less than 2 weeks until I start working dayshift instead of evening shift....think I will go outside and enjoy God's gorgeous world.

Red Spotted Purple

I don't know why I can't ever photograph the Red Spotted Purple on a flower. They are a gorgeous butterfly.
but they are always on the ugliest backgrounds.