Random Things and Sad Family Situation

I was a little concerned that I had not been seeing butterflies. After all, I've filled my gardens with butterfly loving plants including many host plants. A few days ago I went back through my blog archives and saw that it wasn't until July last year that I really began seeing the butterflies. Yesterday morning, while I was outside watering, I saw this butterfly on the parsley. I believe she was laying eggs. Parsley is a host plant for black swallowtail butterflies and I plant it in the butterfly garden just for this purpose.


I've always treated my parsley, as an annual, (it's a biennial), and I clean it out of the garden in the fall. However, last year I didn't get around to pulling it up and surprisingly it survived our winter. It is now in bloom and the insects love it. It seems to be the preferred bloom right now.

I'm not seeing the goldfinches too often anymore. It always delights me to see them. This almost dead maple tree is the favorite perching place for the birds. It's rather nice for me too because there are no leaves to obstruct the view.

I can't believe it this time of year again. I saw the first Japanese beetle yesterday. Today I found one on a purple coneflower at the mailbox. Now, I will have to spend time each morning hand picking these awful bugs off of my trees and plants.

The white hollyhock is simply gorgeous. I've decided that she is definitely a keeper so I'll let her drop seed and hopefully next year I'll have a few more of these beauties.


I walked to one of the neighborhood ponds a few days ago and was surprised at the number of dragonflies. I'm looking forward to going back one evening or on an overcast day and trying to get some better pictures. The sun was pretty bright when I took these.



A few weeks ago I went to a garage sale and found a purple bowling ball for $2.00. I don't think I have to worry about the high winds breaking this gazing ball. I'm not really sure that I like this particular arrangement. Knowing how heavy that thing is, I look at the little guy holding it up, and he just looks like he's straining under all that weight.

This moth was on the patio door.

I thought this was odd. This bee was flying around the patio yesterday, well, he was trying to fly, he was really weighted down and could barely carry his load. I thought it had something like an egg sack but when I downloaded the picture I saw that it was a leaf. Can anyone explain this behavior?

On a really sad note, my husband is now a victim of the bad economy. We were notified yesterday that his job was terminated. He has been in sales in the RV industry for about 20 years, with gas prices and the economy this particular industry is really suffering right now. So many people have lost their jobs and very few, if any, of the RV companies are hiring. For those of you who are inclined, please pray for our family, especially my husband.