Mother Natures 'Artistry

 

Johnny Jump Up

Beautiful Pansies, a beautiful work of art!

Star Flower in Bloom

A Butterfly!

Yesterday I took my first butterfly photo of the spring!  It was a Clouded Sulphur and just a few seconds from taking the picture we saw a Cabbage White Butterfly. Buttetrflies are such beautiful gracious creatures! It was very close to home so I shall check out that area again very carefully today

  a Clouded Sulphur butterfly

Rhodora wildflower

I had learned something new a few  springs ago!  I learned the proper name  ( Rhodora) of these beautiful, rosy, purplish flowers. I remember watching for these flowers every year as a child to come into bloom. My birthday is in June and I always felt that these beautiful flowers made the occasion a bit  more special for me. I had always known them as June flowers.I think that's what everyone around here called them. A couple of years ago I searched for their name, finding nothing named June flowers. So now, its almost June and look what I found this morning, my old misnamed June flowers. What a lovely delight when I came across them! How wonderful to find my old floral seasonal friends again, It is that sort of experience that makes me think of the 'loyalty of nature.. During March, 2010 I had bought a new book titled: Wildflowers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island by Mary Primrose and Marian Munro, published by:Formac Publishing Company Limited, Halifax. At that time my husband was browsing through the book when he came upon my previously misnamed June Flowers., and thus we discovered.

 

Rhododendron canadense) It is a wiry shrub found in roadside ditches, swamps and bogs, growing to be about a meter or more high. The* Rhodora plant is closely related to ornamental Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

these rosy purplish blossoms arecalled Rhodora.

A New Wildflower Find For Me; Bluets!

 

I love wildflowers and it is always exciting and intriguing when I find one that I do not know; as was the case yesterday. Its always an adventure to discover something new!!!!We have recently spent a few days at Quispamsis and 

 

       we  had noticed many clumps of small white flowers on several lawns there.  

I took a few pictures and so I searched in a few wildflower books to find their identify as soon as I had returned home.  I found the flower in  a book titled:Wildflowers of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This is a  lovely book  on wildflowers by Mary Primrose and Marian Munro .
I found pictures of and a description of Bluets on page 48,

   Bluets: 

So you see Tess, that is the name of those  pretty little flowers we  had found on our way home from the park yesterday! They are Bluets!
I have discovered that bluets a.k.a are also known as Innonce or Quaker Ladies1  who knew?

A Flowering Almond in the Rain.

Six years ago we bought this flowering almond tree as a gift to our daughter in honour of the birth of her daughter. We loved its beauty and the pink colour which  was significant to the occasion, the birth of our first granddaughter. When I took these photos yesterday ,the blooms were somewhat diminished in their beauty by the falling rain.  However I feel the raindrops added a dimension of beauty to the blooms which we had not enjoyed previously.  There are still many unopened buds on the tree and the promise of its spectacular blossoming yet to come is still being held within. May the next few days be sunny as they coax the beauty of the blooms  and may the day of our beautiful granddaughter's 6th. birthday coincide with the full blossoming of the beauty of this flowering almond tree.

 below;taken this afternoon after the petals have dried out a bit.

Warblers Welcome in Bird Alley

Each day recently there has been surprise feathered visitor in Bird Alley and yesterday was no different! 
 for the surprise outside our window was a handsome, male Chestnut-sided warbler.

As a rule ,warblers do not feed at feeders as they are mainly insect eaters, but sometimes, if we are lucky, every now and then will pause and stop on their way through Bird Alley like this one did yesterday.  Its a handsome little bird with a brightly coloured yellow cap. , white cheek patches and black between its eyes and beak.  It also had a white eye ring but that feature cannot be seen in these pictures.  It had a white breast and running down both sides are chestnut or reddish brown stripes.
also yesterday in bird alley we had a lot of Pine Siskin activity, and a white-crowned sparrow also dropped by along with many Goldfinch.  and the female Northern Cardinal dropped in also.  It could have been all of the bird activity that might have attracted the warbler,  We also had Mourning Doves, a Blue Jay, Chickadees  and Grackles.  I saw the hummingbird in the morning but there was no sight of it in the afternoon. You never know what each day will bring.  Its nature's treat outside our windows each day! Maybe a different species warbler will drop by today?

A year ago today we had Rose- breasted Grosbeaks at our feeders!!!  I wondering when we will see them in Bird Alley this spring? I am watching and waiting for this handsome species daily.  Maybe today?