Love between the Fritillary Butterfly and the Passion vine

              I have been enjoying the Fritillary butterflies that found my passion vine.  There are up to 8 of these beautiful butterflies flitting around the butterfly garden and the passion vine every day.  The passion vine is their host plant.  I go out to my back yard each morning the stand amongst them with awe.  How did they know that I planted a passion vine and other flowering plants they could feed on?  It is a miracle of God in my eyes.  They started mating and then laying eggs on the passion vine leaves, then little caterpillars hatched.  More hatched and the munching caterpillars got bigger and bigger.  I literally have close to a hundred caterpillars of all sizes on my passion vine.

Getting to know each other

Butterflies mating

Caterpillars

 

Butterfly garden at height of blooms in May and June

Cocoon

I just went outside and saw 3 new passion flowers.  One was up high where the caterpillars like to hang out for some reason unknown to me (maybe they like the 105 degree heat).  The bugs and the caterpillars are clustered around it having afternoon tea or social hour!

Isn't this an amazing photo?  Passion flower with bugs and caterpillars

Spring is sprung!

In honor of the first day of spring, I thought I would share with you the flowers blooming in my garden today. This is a hanging basket of flowers next to the Solari Bell. It has been blooming all winter.
Peaches to be-- in bloom. I don't seem to have as many blooms this year as I did last. Last year I had lots and lots of peaches
Violets from my Mom's garden (she got them soon after she came to the U.S. from Libby McGuire who got her into the Daughters of the British Empire) which have been blooming all winter, but are hanging on
Ah, the fragrant orange blossoms. They fill the night air with sweetness. The bees like the orange blossoms. I would love to taste orange blossom honey, wouldn't you? During the day when I pick the oranges I am often joyfully surprised by the orange scent from a small break in the peel. We live in an old orange grove. I'm not sure when these trees were planted, but it was a mature grove when our houses were built in 1952. Once you have consumed orange juice from my oranges, you will be spoiled for store bought.
View of a flower bed.
This is called Statis. IT is a perennial and just blooms when watered.
A honey bee in the nasturtiums. I harvest the nasturtiums seeds each year also. I have to replant in the pots, but not in the flower beds.
This is some kind of a bulb that Mom gave me. She got them from the Orcutts. It has sorta an onion smell to it and once took over most of Mom's front yard in S. Phx.
These are the apricot blossoms. I think I will have more apricots this year than last. I'm excited! Store bought apricots always taste bland. We had 2 apricot trees when I was a child. I would sit in the one in the front yard, read a book and eat apricots!
I think I got these bulbs from my neighbor, Mitzie. I gave her some of my purple ones which will bloom later.
Snow peas are blooming and growing. I got the original snow pea seeds from Dave and Emma Sing years ago. I just let some of the pods grow into peas and harvest them for next year.
This is a succulent with purple and orange bell shaped blossoms. They grow under one of the orange trees, mixed in with nasturtiums
This succulent is from Thelma who lived in our S. Phx. apartments and was a quilter and a great friend of our family for many years. She lived till almost 100.
These are larkspur (purple) that I got from Faye and Lineria, the little magenta flowers with the yellow centers in the foreground. This is what is blooming now in my friendship garden. I hope the pictures bring you a small amount of the joy that the flowers bring me. If you live here and want cuttings, bulbs, or seeds just let me know.

Smiles that make me happy

Faye, Jules and Grandma Coral came over today for tea. I was trying to remember that rhyme for bouncing babies and Mom of course the better memory at 87 reminded me of how it goes. "This is the way the lady rides, trot a trot a trot a trot. This is the way the gentleman rides gallopy, gallopy, gallopy, gallopy. This is the way the farmer rides odeleop, odeleop odeleop all the way home." The bounces get higher and higher with each person and Jules loved it. Mom, you had to leave and missed her smiles from this and other songs so I send them to you with thanks via my blog. She has been smiling for sometime, but they haven't been caught on film till now.

We're riding like a lady here
This is the farmer riding. She was laughing out loud and having a great time
Here I'm singing Monkey's jumping on the bed and getting ready to wag my finger and sing, "no more monkey's jumping on the bed." Look at that level of concentration!
Papa Jules is doing pretty good. He and I have been concerned because he is still having trouble with fatigue and has not gained any weight since chemo and radiation. So, we went to a Naturopathic Oncologist last week. He is now taking supplements which he hates, but he has started to gain some weight and seems to have more energy so we shall see. He walked 2 miles this morning. He just took the worst tasting one after I doctored it up and said and I quote, "that wasn't bad".
Her eyes are still a dark beautiful blue
Uncle Ryan and Jules, she liked to be held facing out best so she doesn't miss anything. She is really fascinated by the world, colors and the great out doors. She loves a stroll around the garden. Talking of grandchildren, Kirsten, Rob, Rowan and Dilly have moved back to the states from India. Rob is flying for Delta and they will be living in Salt Lake City. The kids are already in school here, but they have every Friday off. Kirsten and the kids are going to hop a plane (they can fly free) to Phoenix soon on a 3 day weekend. We are so excited to have them back and look forward to seeing them soon!
Jules asleep under her heart blanket knitted lovingly by yours truely.
Faye and Jules looking at something at the beach.
Faye and Jules at the beach. Javier has started back to work and Faye has to start back next Tuesday. She will be staying with Julian and I one day a week and Heather,a friend of Faye's who has a baby boy a little older than Jules. I'm sure they will be good buds when they get a little older.
Here are some of my flowers that are blooming currently. It has been hot still in October, but we have mostly had the AC off and opened the windows. When it gets to 98 or 100 degrees we have to turn the AC on for a couple hours. It's just wonderful that it cools down at night and in the morning. I've been enjoying having time to work in my garden. I've been planting seeds: lettuce, snow peas, nasturtiums and larkspur. I've bought and planted tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower and sweet pepper.

These are my saucy "Rio Samba" roses. They are very prolific, stand up in the heat and are a good cut rose. I just love the way each rose changes color from dark yellow to deep orange to pink to light pink.
I caught a bug peaking out from this rose
This is a spider lily given to me by Mom, given to her by someone else. All a part of our friendship gardens. I also have a spider lily which is a bright yellow/orange.
This is a rain lily which blooms this time of year after a rain. Even a trace amount of rain can bring a bloom the next day!
"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Did I get that quote right?
We have been enjoying the parrots all summer. They other day there were 10 parrots on the sunflowers in the back and 5 or 6 more on the sunflowers and feeders in the front. They chomp on the old sunflowers and walk up and down on the stems causing the flowers to sway up and down.
I sometimes go out not thinking and startle the goldfinches and parrots. They fly up in the air and just for a second the sky around the sunflowers are filled with moving yellows, greens, and blues. It takes my breath away! This is as close as I've come to catching it, you can see the yellow/green of the goldfinches back.