ButterflyGarden

I love to see the butterflies dance in my garden when I look up from painting the house. Here are a couple shots I took during a break last week. The Monarch is on my Carefree Beauty Rose. Japanese Beetles have tried to devour the roses, but I keep picking them off into soapy water. When asked why I don't just put chemicals on my plants, I tell them there are too many insect friends - butterflies, bees, dragon flies and others.

This butterfly is on my butterfly bush. I can't remember the name of this butterfly, but welcome your comments to remind me.

Shelter

I've been working on a mixed media piece, watercolor workshop preparations, reading (The Lady & the Unicorn). I'll be showing you some of these in days to come - but I need to take photographs and I'm saving that for another day when it is earlier. My creative juices tend to go overtime at night and that is not good for my sleep pattern. I know I have a lot of company out there.

But for tonight, I will share one of my favorite subjects. This is a version of a Blue Morph Butterfly that I altered with Photoshop Elements. I have worked this image several times and would like to do more with it.

The verse is from one of my favorite Psalms of the Bible and can be found in Psalm 91. I listened to a CD this week that I hadn't listened to for a while. My favorite track is "You Are My Refuge" by Shannon Wexelberg. I love songs like this that remind me of where my safe place is. It's easy for me to worry and let troubling thoughts take over. But God has promised to be a refuge. He is my hiding place.

Butterfly Magic

I'm spending a couple days with Mom & one of my brothers. I didn't bring my camera this time (and I missed out on getting gorgeous shots of the moon rise).

Some years Monarch butterflies come here in droves during their fall migration. I've been thinking about them this week. One artist I enjoyed meeting on the artist studio tour designs jewelry using butterfly wings. She gets the wings from conservatories who collect them from naturally deceased butterflies. In addition to Monarchs, she used wings from Blue Morphs. One side of their wings is the most astounding irridescent blue. The other side is shades of brown with a coral red "eye". On this computer there happens to be copies of some digital play I did with pictures of a Blue Morph. That's what today's pictures are.