Love, Joy and Peas: August 2016

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Butterflies on Mexican Sunflowers at Brookside Gardens

Happy wild Wednesday! Since I haven't been able to get a nice picture of my own Mexican sunflowers (also called tithonia) yet this year I took some at the Brookside Gardens "Wings of Fancy" butterfly exhibit. Their tithonia had many beautiful butterflies flitting from flower to flower and even some resting on the foliage.

The first image is by my talented husband, who was kind enough to let me share it with you here. I thought his picture was the best but wanted you to see the flowers from different angles so am sharing some of mine too.

If you click to see the larger image you should be able to clearly see the butterfly's eyes. Pretty neat.

I think this might be a Monarch butterfly but it seems darker than the ones I see in my yard so maybe it's a different, but similar, kind of butterfly.

The kind mom of the adorable little girl wearing this "thrive" hat let me take this photo of the butterfly on top. She was very excited to have a butterfly land on her head and stay there a while. Thank you to them both for sharing!

I had one land on my hand, which was amazing! It even stayed a while. But it was on the same hand I was holding my camera with so I didn't get a photo. It's always touching to have a butterfly choose to land on you so I felt blessed by that. Of course, just seeing so many butterflies floating around is a huge blessing. I've enjoyed every trip to the butterfly exhibit, whether one landed on me or not.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless my husband, the family that shared their butterfly hat experience, and YOU!

Related posts:
Monarchs on tithonia flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterflies-on-tithonia.html
Monarchs on chrysanthemums: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/10/monarch-butterfly-on-pretty.html
Brookside Gardens monarchs: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/monarch-butterflies-from-brookside.html

Friday, August 26, 2016

Butterflies on Bright Summer Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" Many flowers are blooming and it seems like we have more butterflies than we've had in the past couple years, so that is an added blessing.

The butterflies love many of our flowers but the butterfly bushes (aka buddelia) often have several butterflies per plant, especially in the morning.

The dahlias get their share of butterflies too.

And the giant red zinnias definitely attract butterflies.

There often are butterflies, bees and even golden finches on the giant zinnias. The tithonia have started blooming too but the flowers are up so high I have yet to get a sharable photo. Hopefully next week. The tithonia are special in that they also attract hummingbirds.

Thank you for visiting! That's all for this week's mini garden tour. May God bless you!

Related posts:
Cute critters on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/cute-critters-on-flowers.html
Monarch butterflies: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/09/monarch-butterflies-from-brookside.html
Bees on butterfly bushes: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/10/bees-and-butterflies-on-butterfly-bushes.html

Friday, August 19, 2016

Giant Dahlia, Echinacea, Dianthus, Vinca and Zinnia Flowers

Happy floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" Our pale yellow dinnerplate dahlia started blooming. I love the giant flowers (this one is about 7" wide).

The echinacea (purple conflower) plants are still putting out a few fresh flowers, although the majority have faded.

This dianthus is doing the best of all if its kind in my garden. It's the only one in part shade (the rest are in full sun, which I think is what their tag said they prefer, but clearly mine like some shade).

The vinca flowers continue to bloom nicely. I liked the glistening dew drops on this one.

The zinnias are the star of the garden this year, partly because I planted so many and partly because the birds, butterflies and bees love them.

Thank you for visiting! I hope this finds you safe and cool, despite the summer heat. May God bless and keep you!

Related posts:
Giant red zinnia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/giant-zinnias-gladiola-mr-optimist.html
Funky dahlias: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/08/four-dahlias-and-dianthus-for-floral.html
Sunflower & dahlia: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2014/07/sunflowers-dahlias-marigolds-verbena.html

Friday, August 12, 2016

Cool Flowers from the U.S. National Arboretum's Asian Collection

Happy floral Friday! This week features flowers from the U.S. National Arboretum's Asian gardens. It's a favorite place of mine to walk in the summer because it's mostly shady.

I'm guessing that these purple flowers are a type of aster. I liked both the open flowers and the unfurling buds. So did the bees and a few moths.

This little pink rose was a pleasant surprise.

These neat daisy like flowers appeared to have hollow petals.

The yellow day lily looked especially striking against the variegated shrub's leaves.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless and keep you!

Related posts:
Secret shady gazebo: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/05/secret-gazebo-photos-haikus-short-poems.html
National Arboretum flowers & bugs: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/national-arboretum-flowers-insects.html
Amazing day lily colletction: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2013/07/beautiful-day-lilies-and-day-lily-haiku.html

Friday, August 5, 2016

Summer Flowers for Shade and Sun

Happy August, floral Friday and welcome to "this week in my Maryland garden!" The pretty white impatiens flowers are brightening a shady area.

This hosta blooms even in our deepest shade.

This patch of black eyed Susan flowers blooms even under the shady canopy of several trees. It only gets a little filtered light but I think there are just as many blooms as our other black eyed Susan plants in full sun.

This yellow coreopsis is a volunteer baby of our red coreopsis and thrives in our hottest, full sun flower bed.

This obedient plant is blooming in full sun but we also have some in shady areas that bloom, although not as profusely.

This tiny bicolor fairy marigold is blooming in part sun.

It's fun to have flowers for both shady and sunny areas. Which is your favorite?

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you!

Related posts:
Red coreopsis: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/06/coreopsis-zinnia-hydrangea-dahlia-and.html
Yellow finch on flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2012/08/yellow-finch-feeding-on-black-eyed.html
August 2015 flowers: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/08/rose-zinnia-dahlia-salvia-and-obedient.html

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Cute Kittens Wrestle and Surrender

Happy wild Wednesday! Our feral-born kittens, Braveheart and the Sandman entertained us this week by wrestling in one of their sleeping baskets. Braveheart is smaller but clearly has the better wrestling moves. However, the Sandman wins extra points for extreme cuteness with this double paw surrender pose.

You'd think they'd want separate baskets to have more room but even when I placed identical baskets side by side they chose to stay together in one. We love how much they love each other.

Although it looks like Braveheart is trying to smother her brother, she's really just trying to pin him down to groom him.

Braveheart has mastered putting her brother in a headlock. Don't worry though, he could breathe and could defend himself if he wanted. He weighs about a pound more than she does.

Once Braveheart finished grooming/wrestling her brother they both snuggled and surrendered to sleep. Aren't they cute kittens?

They already weigh almost as much as Baby, their 16 year old housemate cat but they're still growing so I suspect they'll end up being much bigger than her. I hope they learn to all get along but for now Baby doesn't care for the kittens. The kittens love her though, so if Baby ever changes her mind maybe I'll have photos of a three cat snuggle.

Thank you for visiting! May God bless you and those you love!

Related posts:
Introducing our new kittens: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/05/braveheart-and-sandman-our-new-kittens.html
Cute kittens yawning: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2016/06/cute-kittens-yawning-and-cuddling.html
Baby cat with cute pink tongue: http://lovejoyandpeas.blogspot.com/2015/07/black-cat-pink-tongue-cuteness-photos.html