Winged Things
a butterfly catches a late-summer snack on a tithonia blossom
I’m passionate about almost everything in my garden (well…okay. Maybe not the Japanese beetles and thrips and all their buggy relatives). One thing I’m most passionate about is wildlife. Check out this late-summer butterfly that stopped to visit my tithonia flowers a few weeks ago. If you look closely, you’ll see that his wings are a little ragged, a sign that the wind might have tossed him around recently, or even that he had an uncomfortably close encounter with a bird or other predator.
Here’s another butterfly sipping from the same flowerbed. Because my camera caught him in motion, his wings look almost translucent.
And finally, one more wild thing from my garden: a kitten who recently showed up. He’s feral and won’t let me close, unfortunately. We’ve named him Cornbread, for no really good reason, I suppose, except that it seems like a good Southern name.
Here’s a question for you, something I’ve wondered about for a long time: Does every truly great garden have to have a cat? I see cat pictures all the time, posted on gardeners’ websites and blogs. Or does every garden need a dog instead–preferably one that doesn’t dig in the potato patch or stomp all over the lettuce?
Send me a picture of something wild and winged, or wild and wooly, that lives in your garden. What are you passionate about? The folks at the 2009 Southeastern Flower Show want to know!
cheers,
Lynn
Tags: butterflies, cats