Summer's done. :o(

Lots of people around here are glad that we're moving into the cooler weather season, but I'll miss all the creativity of Mother Nature. While I haven't had much time for making things, She's been busy, busy, busy! And, I've got the pictures to prove it! Un-retouched photos from early September, for your review:

 A monarch butterfly chrysallis hangs out on the window casing in front of my house, just a few feet from the milkweed plants where they began their life as caterpillars ...

I was lucky enough to be on hand when this beauty emerged ... a male Monarch butterfly. You can tell the males by the two large black dots at the bottom of their wings, close to the butterfly's body.

And, what would summer be without beautiful pink flowers? Now for autumn ...

Shades of Pink

I cannot recall when I first became enamoured with pink. It must've been a long time ago, because I can't remember ever not liking pink. This past week I've been lucky to see pink flowers all around.


These lovely little pink flowers grow on the corner one street over from my house. I passed them every morning last week and was charmed by their beauty, so on Friday morning, I stopped and took some pictures.


Good thing, too. When I drove by this morning (Monday) the flowers were all gone!




Bought a bunch of peonies at Whole Foods Market for ten bucks and Boy! Did I get my money's worth! They lasted for days!

How could you not like a pink peony? Splendid flowers!

Color me June!

Out and about earlier in the week, I discovered color all over the place!

Breakfast beneath a hand-painted umbrella is a great way to start the day.

Across from a park, this wall of glass changed colors, depending on where you were standing. How cool is that?

Along the roadside, these lovely little flowers bloomed in abundance!

One of my favorite blogs, The Gathering Nest wrote in her Tuesday entry, "I can't believe where the time goes, I haven't posted for over a week, bad girl!!!! I am finding it hard to get any fun stuff done, but I am sure that I am not alone."

Nope. You're not alone. I haven't been writing much during March and April. Been too busy with environmental awareness in the schools and in the community. I have such an Earth Day hangover! Where I live, things have just been growing and blooming like crazy! I take my camera almost everywhere and I've captured some shots I like ...

I don't know what these flowers are called. They were a gift from a gardener friend last year and they're blooming all over my yard. If you notice the dark spot in the center of the flower ... (look carefully) ... it's a bee. They're really quite spectacular and I actually sent a printed version of the photo to my gardener friend thanking him for giving me these wonderful blooms!

So, I was fooling around with the focus of my camera and the flowers versus the wine bottles and I shot a "happy accident" ...

... my dog, Buddy, reflected in the glass, soaking up the rays and sniffing the wind.  :o)

And, let me not forget the tabebuia. The unusually long and cold winter we experienced seems to have had a remarkable effect on anything that blooms, especially these! For the past few weeks, they have colored the landscape and garnered much attention. They are simply spectacular!

Mother Nature's creativity has clearly run amok, but OH! What a joy it is for all the rest of us! Happy Spring!