As another month comes to an end, the unpredictable weather was predictable—great, then windy and rain! Kay got in a few pickleball games on Monday at Diamanté, A snake, a few butterflies, and dragonflies and damselflies provided subjects for a few photographs in our back “yard”.

I participated in a golf scramble with the guys at church on Tuesday. The golf game was pretty bad, though there were occasional good shots that keep one coming back. My excuse is that back issues and a strained right knee ACL alter my swing just enough such that there isn’t any consistency.

We traveled to Memphis on Wednesday to visit with Jenny, Harper, Lina, and Sutton. We had not seen them since mid-December; they have grown a bunch. And their communication skills are greatly increasing. Jenny is a supermom, and is to be admired for raising an 11, 4 and 3-year old as a single mom! Jenny was trying to work at home, and the kids were excited and rambunctious—not a good combination!

After the visit, we attended Harper’s Spring Dance Recital. She performed in the Jazz, Ballet, and Gymnastics categories, and I must say that she was the best of her group, executing all routines to near perfection. And, she’s such a sweet young lady. Regretfully, I didn’t shoot any still photographs, but did make a couple of videos which I will post to YouTube.

The drive home on Thursday was near effortless as we let the car do most of the driving, with frequent warnings to put hands on the steering wheel. Actually, the car drove itself only occasionally! After arriving home, a few bugs awaited photographing in the back, plus our friend “Slim”, including a beautiful Calico Pennant dragonfly. It’s the first time one has been observed in our yard. 

Friend Sue arrived for a visit in the afternoon, and she, Kay, and Pam went out for dinner at Diamanté in the evening while I remained home to enjoy the peace and quiet.

Friday was pretty quiet for me as Kay had an appointment in the morning, and she and Sue had a fun and productive night at Oaklawn Casino. I did go to Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area about midday and shot quite a few photographs as there were several species of butterflies flitting about. Here are a few of the small butterflies photographed.

And, here is a Pipeline Swallowtail.

And, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

And, a Great Spangled Fritillary.

And, Arkansas’ state butterfly, the rare female Diana Fritillary.

And, Arkansas’ state butterfly, the also rare male Diana Fritillary.

Not to be outdone, a couple of dragonflies cooperated.

And this most rare wildflower, Pelton’s Rose Gentian, found in only two places in the world, both in Saline County, Arkansas..

And finally, a few other beautiful wildflowers.

For each of the last several summers, a new project has been created to challenge knowledge and memory—not a difficult task these days! One such project was to learn to identify all of the skipper butterflies observed; this project carried over into two summers. After that, a new project was created to identify local dragonflies and damselflies for which a photo had been made. Let’s just say it remains a work in progress, and seemingly, every step forward is followed by two steps back. With the creation of the new butterfly garden and planting additional attractor flowers in other beds, this year’s project involves inventorying all the butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies observed and photographed on our property, mainly the back yard and lake shoreline.

A semiannual appointment with the cardiologist occurred on Monday, and he said I had the heart of a 19 year old. He must be a great BSer. A butterfly and a dragonfly were photographed Tuesday morning. The dragonfly was a “lifer”, a Prince Baskettail.

A knee injury and persistent back issues generally prevented my serious participation in any physical outdoor activity during the week, although I did play golf on Tuesday; it was not pretty. Kay played golf with the Lady Duffers Wednesday morning, and shot a decent game.

The weekend was all about basketball as we drove to Cabot both Saturday and Sunday to watch grandson Ridge play. The handily won the three games on Saturday and the first on Sunday, but didn’t fair well in the second game; Ridge takes losses so seriously and he gives everything during the game.

Prior to the games on Sunday, a few photos were made of butterflies and damselflies. Even a bird made it into the album.

This first several days of May focused on continuing garden work: planting flowers, dressing existing beds, and creating a pollinator garden. The latter involved moving washed gravel (our “grass”) from the garden area, and replacing it with topsoil. Sounds easy. The gravel was moved shovelful by shovelful as neither of us were physically able to carry much more than that. We did move the topsoil from an existing bed on the north side of the house by loading it into a plastic box and “dragging” it to the new bed—a slow and arduous process resulting in our doing only about a third of the new garden. Back soreness from last week’s yard work limited both our ability and amount of work we were able to do. A shopping trip to the local nursery yielded purchase of several hanging baskets, potted plants, and dozens of pollinator flowers. In the new garden, I dug the holes and Kay planted the flowers. The flowers will be awesome when filled out. It should be noted that all of this occurred among almost daily rain showers.

Working outside provided extensive opportunities to observe butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies flitting hither and yon in the back “yard”. On Wednesday, May 1, I ventured out to Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area for the first time in almost a year. It was a bit too early for many butterflies and dragonflies, though a few were captured by the camera. Of significance, at least to me, were photos of an Indigo Bunting and a Bell’s Roadside Skippers, the former being the first photo of the bunting, and the latter being a “life” butterfly.

On Monday, May 6, “our” Green Heron visited at a convenient time when the camera and big lens were ready. We’ve had a pair of Green Herons regularly visit the shoreline at the house since we moved in in 2015! 

Kay was busy Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with social functions and a golf game sandwiched among them. Of course, the biggie among the social activities was the monthly meeting of The Book Club. 

I managed to snap a few photos in the back yard on Tuesday of a bird, a couple of dragonflies, and a snake.

And the back yard produced again on Thursday with a bird, a butterfly, and a dragonfly.

Another butterfly (perhaps the same as yesterday) and a bird posed for photographs on Friday morning.

During the course of the week, back problems persisted, limiting our participation in both golf and pickleball, though opportunities to play were limited anyway because of rain or wet conditions. We did get out to play the front nine at Cortez on Friday afternoon.

The remainder of gravel was finally moved and and on Saturday, May 11, grandson Ridge hauled and placed top soil in the butterfly garden, and hauled and placed mulch in one of the front beds. To be only 12+ years old, he has a great work ethic, and it was such a pleasure to spend time with him, though he didn’t talk much!

I snuck in a couple of photos while he was working.

Kay’s kids treated us to dinner Saturday evening to celebrate Mother’s Day. I’m sure they know it, but she is a super mom, and we’re fortunate that our daughters and daughter-in-law are super moms as well.

Mothers Day on Sunday was without fanfare, and we hung around the house relaxing.