Friday, February 08, 2008

Taking a break: Blooms, Butterflies and WIP

Brilliant sunshine brings us blossoms and butterflies.
I stepped outside for a break yesterday and saw a large yellow butterfly dancing through the air.

The Encore Azaleas were a huge draw!

As I focused my camera on one butterfly, I suddenly realized that actually there were two butterflies enjoying the the rosy blooms.

I looked it up: This is a cloudless sulfur butterfly.
The link has a picture of one of their beautiful chrysalis.
Now I will always be looking to see one in my garden and walks.

The sun shone through the butterfly's wings, allowing every marking and vein to be seen.


Usually I have little luck capturing butterflies with my camera; these two were pretty frisky and fluttered away over the fence many times as soon as I approached.
The flowers must have had delicious nectar because within moments they would be back again.
The pansies seemed to be soaking up the sunshine as well.

I love the delicate stamen eyebrows.

This pansy appeared white until I enlarged it; then all the subtle colors appeared upon the petals. Very Georgianna O'Keefe!

A couple of bewhiskered yellow violas.

Other violas appeared as though watercolored, with fade out colors overlayed with graphic design work stitched in black.

I'd entitle this shot: "Serious Faces in a Crowd"

This one would be named "Shadowed Stalker."
Tigs took one energetic leap at the butterflies, then went back to just patrolling the ground.
I think the shadow of his head is cute with his little ears triangling out.

This is "WIP: Work in Progress"

More to come about that tomorrow....

9 comments:

A Lady said...

Great shots! I particularly enjoyed the title of the purple pansies. Perfectly brilliant!

Kathy said...

I LOVE the blue and yellow pansys. We've got a perfectly grey day here with drizzle. A good day for a book by the fire.

L&D said...

Again, breath-taking photos. Tiggie is such a handsome cat surrounded by such beautiful flowers. Lovely post today.

Lovella ♥ said...

Oh those pansies are so bright and beautiful. It's hard to imagine such color on such a grey day. Oh wait it isn't grey every where.

You did a wonderful job of capturing the butterflies as well.

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

I love all the colors....but the blue and yellow combos are my favorites.

Anonymous said...

The flowers are gorgeous! You did a great job with the photography. The cloudless sulfur butterfly has a very pretty chrysalis, doesn't it?

Can't wait to see that hat!

Spooky said...

I like the flowers and the butterflies, but that handsome Cat is what really caught my eye!

Anonymous said...

My, my Jill....have you ever thought about publishing a book of your floral photos? I can imagine the book. It would be a breathtaking oversized coffee table book with shiny photos organized by type of flower and color. And then the best part--the dialogue on each page telling your wonderful insight about each photo. You really should put all these photos together and have them published. I definitely would buy one of those! (And my favourite one is the Georgiana O'Keeffe...

Anonymous said...

http://www.heartofwisdom.com/Blogginghelp/turn-your-blog-into-a-book/

This might be a handy link to look at, especially with all these wonderful posts!