Category Archives: images of flowers

Meditations from My Room

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Click on photos to enlarge and view captions. A poem follows.

Art Studio
Today this new variety of swallowtail.
I have to catch them at rest. They whizz by too quickly to catch them in flight.
Now he’s not.
Diego and Morrie now think this is their studio as well.

Meditations from My Room

I share different  company in my isolation.
Dogs litter my studio floor,
and my backyard is
an in-between place for birds
passing as though at a freeway interchange,
this way and that.

A constant flutter of butterflies
stirs air around the orange and yellow thunbergia,
lush in this season that mixes sun and rain.
They soar down to the empty lot
and back again,
as though no creature can resist
collecting here in my domain.

Nature follows no rules of man.
It cannot learn obeisance or heed human leverage.
Our world, professional and polished—
how easily by nature now turned inward upon itself.

Our burnished world can hold no sway,
for nature heeds no golden cow.
Her empathy extended toward the broader view,
nature must change the things she can.
She has been patient  with us long enough. The time is now.

 

Prompt words today are empathy, leverage, patient, burnish and professional.

Hibiscus: FOTD May 14, 2020

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For Cee’s FOTD

Hibiscus: FOTD 5/13/2020

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This beauty just burst out yesterday. Third time it has bloomed but the second time it disappeared before I could get a photo. Either there is a flower thief in the yard or I was hallucinating. I saw it on my way to the hammock to have a nap. After my nap, 2 hours later, went up to the house to get my camera and as I passed its location, it had vanished. Not fallen. No petals below. Just gone. Has Diego developed a taste for hibiscus? A really hungry snail? Some bird? I’ll never know..

The Life Story of Bananas: FOTD May 12, 2020

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To read the life story of this giant banana blossom, click on each photo. The photos will enlarge and the story is told in the captions.

On December 7, I discovered this gorgeous bloom hidden behind the palm fronds and giant philodendron leaves in the strip of garden between my house and studio.
In April, I started asking Pasiano if it was time to cut down the branch and hang them upside down to ripen. No, he said, that time
and the next two times I asked.
But finally, yesterday, he said it was time.
My choice of where to hang them was in the gazebo next to the hammocks, where I could be sure to chart their progress.
Already, at least one was ripe beyond the eating stage, but right for banana bread.
Pasiano picked the pick of the litter for us to try.
Guess which one I got?
It was a bit overripe at it’s end, but Morrie and Diego enjoyed it.
Pasiano thought his was perfect!

 

For Cee’s FOTD prompt.

India Shot Lilies: FOTD May 11, 2020

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For Cee’s FOTD

Hibiscus: FOTD May 10, 2020

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For Cee’s FOTD

Tabachine with Hummingbird: FOTD May 9, 2020

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Click on photos to enlarge. A video of the hummingbird is at the end. Unfortunately, by the time I thought to take a video, it was his last run and I didn’t really capture the butterfly.

 

Yesterday I watched a hummingbird sitting on a branch of the pistachio tree and guarding this tabachine. First a monarch butterfly and then a large black swallowtail butterfly repeatedly tried to sip nectar from blossoms on this tree and every time, the hummingbird swooped down and attacked them and drove them away. This went on hundreds of times over an hour period. I never saw the hummingbird feeding at the bush. I inspected it closely and there was no nest in either the tabachine or the pistachio. He was just being mean! After an hour, when the butterflies finally gave up, the hummingbird finally flew away as well. I have never seen a hummingbird stay still without feeding for that long. In between chasings, he sat still on that branch for at least an hour. Here are photos I took of the pistachio and the tabachine. And that nasty hummer.

Be sure to click on photos to enlarge your view. The third photo shows the distance between the tabachine in the foreground and the pistachio tree with the hammock I was observing from behind it. They weren’t really in close proximity

 

And here is the little hummer. I put out a feeder for him today. Hopefully he’ll now leave the butterflies alone.

 

 

 

For Cee’s FOTD
and, for Sunday Trees.

Bleeding Heart Vine

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Click on photos to enlarge.

For Cee’s FOTD

Moss Rose: FOTD, May 7, 2020

5 Replies

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For Cee’s FOTD

Mexican Petunias: FOTD May 6, 2020

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For at least 15 years, I’ve been trying to get a decent photo of this flower which grows like a weed all around the edges of my garden. This morning, I came the closest to doing so so far. The flowers are from 1 to 1.5 inches (~2.5 to 4 cm) across and come with a warning. They are so invasive that it is illegal to plant them in some states in the U.S. Wish I’d known this before planting them. Thanks to Forgottenman for finally identifying them for me.


For Cee’s FOTD, May 6, 2020