Spring beauties

Apparently this is the year of the butterfly, and it has taken me a long time to catch one perched long enough to grab my camera. This is I believe, a comma butterfly.

The Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility says:  Although quite variable, this medium-sized (wingspan: 37 to 56 mm) species is usually a dark orange brown with black borders and distinct black spots on the upperside. There are two forms: the winter form is described above; the summer form has almost entirely black hindwings above, often with a violet edging as in the Question Mark (P. interrogationis). The underside in males is mottled in various shades, but females have a relatively even grey-brown or yellow-brown underside. The silver comma-shaped mark has a swollen club at each end.

Range: Widespread in eastern North America, the Eastern Comma is found across eastern and central Canada from St. John's, Newfoundland, to southeastern Saskatchewan. There is one Alberta record, at Turner Valley.

Similar Species: The dark form of comma is frequently confused with the dark form of the Question Mark, but the two can readily be distinguished by the shape of the comma mark on the underside. The pale form is easily confused with the Satyr Comma (P. satyrus), which usually occurs north and west of the Eastern Comma's range. They can be distinguished by the upperside colour, which is orange brown in commaand tawny yellowish brown in satyrus; by the underside pattern, which tends to be mottled in comma but appears to be more longitudinally streaked in satyrus; and by the row of pale submarginal spots on the hindwing upperside, which tend to be separate and surrounded by dark shading in comma, but are larger and tend to run together into a pale band in satyrus.

And this is where you see a lot of the butterflies - on the Dame's rocket and forget me nots... two of my favourite spring flowers. Hope you enjoy your day and spot many butterflies throughout the rest of the spring and summer.

An old homestead

The rusted out remains of a stove fill in part of what must have been a crawl space or basement for this old home, now long forgotten. Bits of lumber for what might have been a door stoop remain. And a covered over well, as well as a spot that was obviously the outdoor privy surrounded by lilacs are all that remain of a pioneer cabin, probably built in the mid 1800s when this part of central Ontario was settled.

But as I look around I see other remnants, reminders that this had been a home. Someone had cared for this place, someone had loved it enough to plant:

and then I heard the bees...  if you can - imagine the buzzing of tiny and large honey bees, yellow jackets other kinds of nectar gathers, working this clump of what may be scilla, but may also be blue eyed grass or a wild hyacinth (have to do some research.) I tried to upload a video - but failed miserably for the past couple of hours - so instead - hope you enjoy these beautiful reminders of a caring pioneer from many days gone by.  Maybe tomorrow I'll try the video of bees gathering pollen and nectar.

An indoor flower garden

The past few days have been lovely outside and inside as well. My hibiscus and Christmas cactus have decided to put on a show given the longer light and late afternoon sun coming through the deck doors.

I've been so fortunate with all my indoor flowering plants. Not only are there lovely pinks seen here, but the orchid's 46 fuscia blooms are still going strong. The geraniums which vary from lipstick red to hot pink are also beginning to flower as well. I guess it helps that I've given them all a nudge with fertilizer, but still it's terrific to have something blooming. I know further south there are crocuses in gardens and snow drops are out in the villages and towns here... soon daffodils.

The flowers that bloom in the spring tra-la!

Don't remember the rest of that song - but it seems appropriate for today - which is cooler, the pond is full of muddy water and I can't see the fish, it snowed a bit over night and the wind is really high... but it's not a blizzard. There may be sun later on, the little birds are lining the deck railing vying for seeds as well as mobbing the other feeders. The deer have helped with pruning the apple trees - I'm going to have to take my camera out late one night and see if I can catch them in the act - skunks are digging holes in everyone's lawns, moles have attacked my flower beds with abandon and there are tiny holes everywhere... but it's definitely spring. A truly Canadian is it going to snow again kind of spring.

I'm glad of it.

Today I wish you spring flowers, colour and joy in your day.

Spring colour

A basket of spring blossoms seems just right for a chilly holiday Monday morning.

All of these will show up in my garden in a month or two and be a welcome sight. In the meantime I've posted this photograph to my desk top so I see it every day. I can almost smell that beautiful hyacinth which has to be one of my favourite spring flowers... and pansies - love them too - well I guess I just love them all. Gardening seems to go along with animals and birds in my world.

Hopefully you too will have some bright colour in your world today, naturally you who live or are vacationing in southern climes will do so. But the changing seasons in both northern and southern hemispheres seem to make colour seem all the more precious.

As they say "carpe diem" - looks like a good one!