Early Morning Interlude

So, I woke up early this morning to the sound of the garbage truck, and remembered we had not taken the bin from it's usual spot in the yard to the alley.  Remembering the "wonderful" odor as I walked by it yesterday, I got up, threw a dress on, and took it to the nice trash collectors.  Yay--stinky stuff gone. 

It was a pretty morning, with the sun behind clouds, so I went back into the house, gave the kitties kibble, and grabbed my camera to take pictures.

Here is another purple flower that I'd like to know the name of.  And no, "weed" doesn't count!  You can see the spiky stems pretty well in this picture; the leaves are a lot like dandelion leaves.



These flowers had a small bee on them, with a bright metallic-green back.  The close-up shows the little green bee busy collecting and spreading its pollen.  I find it interesting that I don't see these bees later in the day. This was about 8 in the morning by the time I was taking pictures.  I'm used to the larger, black and yellow bumble bees that I see in the afternoons.  I didn't realize that some bees were "early birds" and others were late sleepers, like me!

There was another purple flower blooming; someone walking by identified it as "indigo" but I don't know if that's accurate:



I suppose that's what I get for planting multiple "wildflower" packets and waiting to see what likes the soil and sun conditions--I don't know what everything is.  One day I'll get fed up and research it; today I've been working on the next installment in Fireborn, so identifying my wildflowers will have to wait.  Unless, of course, someone here identifies some of them for me!

My coneflowers are just starting to bloom; the process is quite different from roses, where you have a fully-formed bud that gets bigger until it unfurls; in coneflowers the center of the flower forms, with little vertical spikes all around it.  Then, as the flower matures, they get bigger, and paler, and stick up more, and suddenly one day they start to look like petals:


We also had another swallowtail butterfly visit, this one with most of it's right lower wing missing.  It was having no time flying around, however, and I chased it all over the yard until it paused long enough for me to get a picture.  Here it is by my thyme.  The last picture is from a few days ago, in the afternoon--the bumblebee on the spirea flowers, so you can compare it to the green-backed bee above.


And then, after taking pictures, I went back to bed to finish my night's sleep!

More of the ongoing story tomorrow, after my "exciting" trip to the dentist for the new crown and a filling.  They are nice people, but I'll be pleased not to see them for a while! 

Look at the time!  I'd better head to bed.  Apologies if there's typos, I'm not going to stay up to proofread. 

Time flies while you're writing!

 

Early Morning Interlude

So, I woke up early this morning to the sound of the garbage truck, and remembered we had not taken the bin from it's usual spot in the yard to the alley.  Remembering the "wonderful" odor as I walked by it yesterday, I got up, threw a dress on, and took it to the nice trash collectors.  Yay--stinky stuff gone. 

It was a pretty morning, with the sun behind clouds, so I went back into the house, gave the kitties kibble, and grabbed my camera to take pictures.

Here is another purple flower that I'd like to know the name of.  And no, "weed" doesn't count!  You can see the spiky stems pretty well in this picture; the leaves are a lot like dandelion leaves.



These flowers had a small bee on them, with a bright metallic-green back.  The close-up shows the little green bee busy collecting and spreading its pollen.  I find it interesting that I don't see these bees later in the day. This was about 8 in the morning by the time I was taking pictures.  I'm used to the larger, black and yellow bumble bees that I see in the afternoons.  I didn't realize that some bees were "early birds" and others were late sleepers, like me!

There was another purple flower blooming; someone walking by identified it as "indigo" but I don't know if that's accurate:



I suppose that's what I get for planting multiple "wildflower" packets and waiting to see what likes the soil and sun conditions--I don't know what everything is.  One day I'll get fed up and research it; today I've been working on the next installment in Fireborn, so identifying my wildflowers will have to wait.  Unless, of course, someone here identifies some of them for me!

My coneflowers are just starting to bloom; the process is quite different from roses, where you have a fully-formed bud that gets bigger until it unfurls; in coneflowers the center of the flower forms, with little vertical spikes all around it.  Then, as the flower matures, they get bigger, and paler, and stick up more, and suddenly one day they start to look like petals:


We also had another swallowtail butterfly visit, this one with most of it's right lower wing missing.  It was having no time flying around, however, and I chased it all over the yard until it paused long enough for me to get a picture.  Here it is by my thyme.  The last picture is from a few days ago, in the afternoon--the bumblebee on the spirea flowers, so you can compare it to the green-backed bee above.


And then, after taking pictures, I went back to bed to finish my night's sleep!

More of the ongoing story tomorrow, after my "exciting" trip to the dentist for the new crown and a filling.  They are nice people, but I'll be pleased not to see them for a while! 

Look at the time!  I'd better head to bed.  Apologies if there's typos, I'm not going to stay up to proofread. 

Time flies while you're writing!