Wordless Wednesday - First Mourning Cloak

Sequestered, Week 298 (CCXCVIII)

White admiral (Limenitis arthemis)

 

Painted Ladies and Purple Sage

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

There must have been at least thirty "ladies" dancing about in the clump of Balkan sage around a corner in the village this week. Beau and I stopped for a few minutes on the way home from our morning walk to watch them flutter exuberantly about, a perfect marriage of purple and orange.

Alas, it was a windy morning, and most of the images we captured were fuzzy - there was only a single acceptable capture in the several exposures taken. For all that, it was good fun to watch the Vanessas dancing about in the early breeze.

Village goldenrod thickets are in full bloom, and they are abuzz with rapturous bumbles, bees and wasps. So are the Michaelmas asters which are just coming into their own and filling the garden with dry sweetness. Could there be anything sweeter and more poignant than late summer nectar?

Late September conferences of orange, red, gold and purple are perhaps my favourite color combinations ever. Deciduous trees in the village are a riot of colour now, and morning walks take forever because we stop to admire every single one.

Just a reminder that tonight's Harvest Moon is the last supermoon of the year, and that there will also be a partial lunar eclipse. If skies are clear this evening, Beau and I will be out around ten watching Luna do her thing. Autumn moons are always something to crow about, and I often think of an old friend (now departed) who used to call them "big ass yaller moons". Standing out in the garden and looking up at Herself in the darkness, I find myself saying admiringly, "Hey there, Mama, looking good."

Wordless Wednesday - First Mourning Cloak

First Monarch in My Garden

Little Friend in the Honeysuckle

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio canadensis)

Painted and Purpled

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) and Balkan Sage

There must have been at least thirty "ladies" dancing about in a clump of Russian sage (Salvia yangii), around a corner in the village this week.

On the way home from a morning walk, Beau and I stopped to admire a neighbor's riotously colorful fall garden, and there were the butterflies. For a while we watched as they fluttered exuberantly hither and thither in a perfect marriage of vivid orange and deep purple, two of my favorite colors.

The kaleidoscope in the garden was a clear sign that migration to Mexico and Central America is not far away. Astonishing creatures, painted ladies fly high and fast, and theirs is the longest known continuous butterfly migration, surpassing all other species including the Monarch. During migration, populations of V. cardui may travel several thousand kilometers.

During times of migration, populations of Vanessa cardui can move thousands of kilometers

During times of migration, populations of Vanessa cardui can move thousands of kilometers

Alas, it was a windy September morning, and most of the images we bagged were fuzzy - there was only a single acceptable capture. We only seem to see the "ladies" together here in September, and hoping for a autumn kaleidoscope of my own, I will plant Russian sage in the garden next year.

Painted Lady and Purple Sage

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) and Balkan Sage

There must have been at least thirty "ladies" dancing about in a clump of Balkan sage around a corner in the village this week. Beau and I stopped for a few minutes on the way home from our morning walk to watch them flutter exuberantly about, a perfect marriage of purple and orange, two of my favorite colors.

Alas, it was a windy morning, and most of the images we captured were fuzzy - there was  only a single acceptable capture.