An old photo

 I really need to get out and look for things to photograph...however it is so much fun to look back through the archives and see things I have completely forgotten.  I went in search of thistle blooms but got distracted by other things.

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I have just did almost nothing this day...pick up Lorelei from Driver's Ed, and ran to Walmart.  Due to timing, I had to wait till after I took her home.  I figures Walmart would be a lot busier, but it wasn't at all.  Still, I hurried...I seldom go anywhere that I do not hurry.

Bits

 This is going to be a mixed up post...so beware.

First a sunset from the other night at the strip pits.  I don't really like the sun being almost dead center, but I wanted the clouds as they are in this shot, so that is how it is.  Other than the sunset, not much was happening out there.  

Older daughter and I went to a quilt shop on Saturday.  We immediately saw fabrics that Lorelei's mom would love as pillow cases....

The above two pillowcases are the result of that trip.  I was finishing the bottom one at 2:00 a.m. this morn.  

How about a tattered Tiger Swallowtail?  It is the only one I have photographed this year.  

And here we have my new hibiscus...just planted in early summer.  It has been well worth the money, even if it does not survive the winter.  

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I had a sort of bad week last week...I had to go to the dentist, and the ordeal is too long to tell here.  But believe me it was an ordeal, and not over yet.  That was Tuesday of last week, and yesterday just started to feel half normal.

That is about all the time I have...had more to say but this is enough.  I have to get busy...hope you all are having a nice week....

Butterflies and Lorelei at the creek

The above is what the creek has been looking like...no sandbar, turbulent waters...

Lorelei loves to go wade in the creek and look for crawdads and baby turtles and whatever else she can find.  Imagine our surprise to find it at this calm, low level yesterday.

Believe it or not, right behind  her is a hole of water that would at least be up to her neck...the build up of sand where she is standing is new...it is in the middle of the channel and she has to wade water up to her knees at least to get back to the main gravel bar.

She and Papaw went for a bit of a walk...it was almost too much for Roger...but he made it back safely to the bank but he was sure tired.  It is hard for Lorelei to comprehend how much her Papaw has changed.  And even though I am with him every day, it sometimes catches me off guard, too.

Lorelei had some butterfly attraction going on!

The way she was giggling I think they tickled her when they crawled around on her.

 Notice in the above picture there is also a butterfly on the finger of her other hand that is at the upper edge of the photo. 

I hope you enjoy seeing what we were doing yesterday....it was a fun time...

I will be linking to Wednesday Around the World....

I decided the easiest random 5 thing I could do was find five of my favorite shots.

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And some of you have probably never seen these...of when Lorele was a baby and Otto was a much younger dog.   They were taken 7 years ago and still make me grin from ear to ear.  The video quality is not that good, but you still can hear the laughter.





That makes up my Willy Nilly Friday 5 post....I hope you enjoyed it....

I call this co-operation.

I happened to walk into the dining room, and there on the window was this guy/gal.  I had my camera laying right there, and got a couple different snaps.  It kept closing and opening its wings.  I don't know what kind this is, do you?  It took off and I did not get a good look at the top side.  I am thinking Hackberry Emperor.
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Nothing lost today.  So far.  The day is not over:-)

A friend stopped by and informed me they are moving...though we don't visit often, I will miss them.  I will miss just knowing they are there.  But they will only be about 4 hours away, so not impossible to visit.  Shoot, we may end up seeing each other more after the move than we do now.

Pearl Crescent

Not the greatest picture, but I love the way the leaf has dried into the circular shape.
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A hot and sunny day...the girls (Lo and her mommy) spent the night last night, but headed home this afternoon.   She is all about going to school...when we were over early last week she told me she wants to be a teacher.  Wonder if she will stick with that dream?  I am sure part of it is she loves her teacher so much, and just thinks that would be the greatest thing to be.

Not much happening here...today.  Have a lot of stuff to get done though so not sure how much blogging I will be doing in the future.

The dance of the butterflies...

On a drive today we came across a group of butterflies...I got this shot which is not too bad, but the rest are quick snaps...lucky to get what I did, but I hope you enjoy them.

I think it is 'that' time of year...

Most of these are cropped to give a closer view.

There is not much to be said for the pics...

You can click on each one to expand the view.

I just couldn't choose 3 or 4.

I hope you don't mind all these shots..

More Sandhill Cranes, and a 1st

With seeing the Sandhill Cranes yesterday, we thought it might be a good idea to head north to the Jasper-Pulaski Wildlife place...to go to the viewing station.

As you can see, we did see some...but they were not close enough for me to get nice photos.

And now for the total surprise of the day....

Can you see it?  Yep, a butterfly.  I totally did not expect to see one.  I could not get within 5 feet of it.  This photo is cropped.

And though I don't have photos to show them, I saw a frog hopping across the road and into the drainage ditch, and I saw a turtle!  And up there where we were, we still seen snow....and ponds were mostly frozen still.  All in all, a good day.

From the archives

I have been having the best time going through my photographs.

After all the cold weather, these really appeal to me.  I hope you enjoy them, too.

Are you anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring and warmer weather?

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I am still working on Lorelei's dress.  I had planned to finish it today but instead we ran some errands, and went to Terre Haute.  I did not work on it till later in the evening.  I am thinking it is going to be too big for her.  So kind of disappointed that way.  Maybe I will be wrong.

I have not did any more de-cluttering to speak of.  Oh, have thrown/donated an item here and there.  I would like to get started back at that.  I think I will feel a lot more like doing that when the weather gets better, or spring arrives. 

A little slow posting...

 I don't know why, but just forgot about posting last night...till late.  And by then couldn't choose what to post.  Then this morn was looking for something to post, and was a bit before I remembered these butterflies.  There were several of them out at the strip pits...when I would get out to take a photo, and disturb them, it was a strange but good feeling to be standing in the middle of a bunch of butterflies dancing on the air.

This is just a cropped portion of the first photo above...I just liked the close-up view.  You can click on it for a larger view.  Other than these, the only butterflies we saw on that trip was one little pearl crescent that would not sit still for me and one tiger swallowtail.

In my flowers, the other day I had a red admiral and a fritillary...both had wings that were worse for wear.  That was the reason I did not take any shots of them...the bumblebees have claimed the cone flowers as their own.  At any time we can see 5 or 6 of them on the flowers.  And yesterday saw a hummingbird moth...but it seemed to only pass through.  There and gone before I could much more than have the thought to get my camera.
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Our DirecTv is now installed...so far, so good.  Really liked the kid who installed it.  Felt like he really knew what he was doing.

I don't know why, but change really bothers me.  Makes me a nervous wreck.  I could not do anything yesterday till that was done and over with, so I didn't accomplish a thing.  It was around 5:00 when he got here....so by the time they left, the day was done.
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It is looking like rain...Roger is mowing....again.  I need to get off here and get busy with something.  It is just a matter of deciding what I want to do first.

I wrote a song for you.....it was called Yellow

I can't help but think of the song Yellow by Coldplay when I see all the yellow...it must be the chosen color for fall.
I hope you click on these to get their full glory...
though it may look like the butterflies were cooperating, I really had to chase them around to get some decent shot. But at least they didn't fly completely away.
I tried and tried to capture a Monarch with the wings open but just could not be quick enough to get one when they moved from one place to another.
Even the Buckeyes flitted away almost every time I got near.
Still, aren't they gorgeous!

The day begins...

First of all, I took these photos a bit back....and re-sized them but never got around to showing them. I don't know what the above caterpillar becomes...I first thought that maybe a Pearl Crescent, but when googling Pearl Crescent cater pillar, this is not among the images shown. So I have no idea what it is going to become.


I had tried to capture the Pearl Crescent butterfly other times and they were not very cooperative. However, they were enjoying the jewel weed so much that I had not trouble getting near....

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The move went smoothly for Sarah and Jeremy....Neal and his wife came and helped unload, as well as a couple of their friends, plus Jeremy's brother and his wife. Little Lorelei definitely enjoyed the second day better than the first because her little cousin was there, plus other kids.

BUT.....she had only taken a 45 minute nap on Friday, did not get to bed till 10:30 or 11:00, and up at 7:00 Saturday morn. No nap that day, and she did not want to settle down to go to sleep, but when she did she was back up in an hour or two for a while.

We spent the night and came home Sunday evening...I think it was a rough night for Lo that night too, but yesterday she settled down for a nap easily....after Sarah got her her Elmo, her big fuzzy Bee pillow and her hard plastic cow! She wanted Otti Doddie but Sarah felt like that was little bit too much.

I don't think I mentioned that during the past week or two, one day Lorelei would try to get Otto to chase her and she would throw herself in the floor, trying to get him to get her like he did in the videos in the link above. And she was doing that Sunday...she just thinks it is so funny. I don't know if he would ever be protective of her...he just doesn't meet strangers. But a lot of the time, when Lorelei is outside, he lays not too far from her.

I don't know if I have told this or not, but Lorelei loves dirt! She likes to take her shovel and find a dusty place and cover herself and Otto with dirt...and Otto just lets her. Actually, you can do anything to him, and he just doesn't care. You cannot hurt him. That is one of the reasons they were the #1 pet in America at one time... Anyway, after an afternoon of playing in the dirt, their mommy has to hose Otto down, and take Lo inside and give her a bath....

I must say I sure enjoy him...I fell asleep on Sarah's couch Saturday night, and he came and laid right beside me up against the couch. Every now and then he would raise up, maybe lay his face on the edge of the couch and stare at me, and then lay back down and curl up right back against the couch.

I think we have to make a trip to Terre Haute here in a bit...not sure when I will catch up with everyone...I am hoping tonight I get some un-interrupted time to visit my favorite blogs..

A Question Mark?

I am pretty sure this is a Question Mark butterfly...I only got to snap this single photo. He seems to be on the shy side...I have seen it or one just like it several times but it never pauses very long. And for sure not if I approach it....with or without camera.

There are more butterflies here this year than I have ever noticed before...Puss Puss has a fun time trying to catch them. I saw her come carrying a Monarch yesterday evening, but she let it get away.

Oh, last night we went out to the garage real late....to check on something about the doors Roger is making for the old garage. We spotted three little tree frogs on the side of the garage! One of them looked just the exact color of the siding, one had more green to it, and one was down so close to the ground that I didn't get down and inspect it. I am so thrilled to have seen that many.

One summer there were all kinds of toads in the yard, but I have not seen that many since. In fact, only see one occasionally. I think our 'pet' must have died...the last time we seen her she was about double the size she is in the post above. Notice the size in comparison to the hand. The last time we had it, it was almost wider than our hand!

In the wind again!

The photo above is just a sample of what we saw Sunday....click to make it bigger till you can see it better. We counted 7 butterflies in it...

Then there were these butterflies...I have just started seeing them this year. I don't ever recall seeing them before, but maybe I did and just don't remember. The width of the yellow bands almost makes me think it is two different kinds, but maybe it just signifies male and female. I am thinking they are the Giant Swallowtail, so if you know for sure one way or the other, please chime in in the comments.

Then there is the little guy below...
We saw just a few of them...not sure what kind it is. Probably a Frittillary but I am not sure which one. It was much smaller than the swallowtails and the monarchs.

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I have clothes hanging on the line, Roger is working on the old garage....actually he is getting ready to make doors for it. He is going to make them to look like barn doors. He is having to do some other work first.

I went down to sew some this morn, and discovered I had cut some pieces of my project the wrong way...so I am having to 'fix' my problem before I can really get down to sewing. I was tired when I cut the pieces and I know better than to do anything that requires thinking when I have that worn out feeling. I know what I done, and it was dumb, dumb, dumb! But mom always said if you hadn't made mistakes, you hadn't ever done anything....so will try to look at this as a learning experience.

I don't mind that tired feeling if I have actually been working, but I hate that just going shopping totally wears me out. I hate shopping because of that...the only time I enjoy it is when I go Christmas shopping. And even then I still suffer that totally worn out feeling, but I still enjoy shopping for gifts.

P.S. I forgot to add that it was harder than heck to get any decent photograghs of the butterflies...the wind was blowing the entire time I was there.

My little sidekick

Yesterday while Roger went fishing with a buddy, I took off to run through the strip pits and maybe go for more of a drive. I seen frogs, butterflies, one pheasant and one quail....none of the things that fly cooperated at all...and only one photo of a frog.
I passed on through the strip pits coming out just over the state line in Illinois...and drove north for the most part. I came to this section of road that had fresh clover blossoms and in general was just a grassy area, with butterflies that were much more willing to pose. I had one land on me and I shooed it off without thinking. Then this one landed on my arm.

I took a few photos with it there, but I could not get my arm in a position and far enough away at the same time for it to be in focus...the auto focus on my longer lens does not work so all that was left was to move my arm to try to get it in focus. The above is one of those photos.
I took some other pictures with it staying on my arm, so I though I might as well try something...so I put my finger up there and it crawled on to that hand. It was on my left arm so, I had to use my right hand. So, since I am right handed and could not operate the camera at all with my left hand, I had to transfer the little guy back over to my left hand...so, here's a photo from that.

I tried to go on about my business and leave it alone while I took photos of other butterflies, but it insisted on staying at the ends of my fingers so I had actually shake it and make it leave.

I don't know what type of butterfly it is, and too tired to try to identify. So, if you know the name, post it in the comments.