Tag Archives: flowers

Monday through Wednesday, June 9-11, 2025–Visiting Family

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Kay and I drove east Monday some 300 miles to visit family in eastern Virginia, arriving about 1:30 pm. The first couple of hours were spent catching up, and then we sort of unpacked, visited some more, and “crashed and burned” for a decent night’s sleep.

We all ventured out Tuesday to see their community pickleball courts, hike a James River trail. And visit their Master Gardener’s pollinator garden. A few butterflies were observed, including a new lifer, a Cabbage White.

Cabbage White

Also, several damselflies were bouncing from place to place.

And then, even a few dragonflies were spotted.We all enjoyed a homemade shrimp and egg noodle alfredo dish for dinner, before watching a bit of television and retiring for the evening.

On our final day, Wednesday, we had coffee at a large church’s coffee shop, and visited their off-site thrift shop, where brother-in-law George volunteers.  Afterwards, we went shopping. One of the neat things about high population areas, such as the greater Richmond, VA, area, is the variety of shopping available, and many “big name” outdoor stores are available such as REI and Sierra Trading Post. None of us bought much, though I did buy a pair of cheap sunglasses for the trip back home. And then we stopped at a pollinator garden created and maintained by master gardeners; both Nan and George are master gardeners. And then, it was off to their public pickleball courts which were really nice, including the two individually covered courts. Both Kay and I found groups with which to play, and we had a good time.

We visited with Geoff and  in the afternoon, and again that evening. He is an outstanding young man (though maybe not so young anymore), and we enjoyed his recap of a recent work trip to India.

All in all our family visit with Nan and George was really good, perhaps the best we’ve experienced, and we thank them much for hosting us.

Friday through Sunday Noon, March 28-30, 2025—Yard Work, Pollen, Spring Cleaning, and Wild Flowers

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It’s late March in Arkansas and that means yard work and spring cleaning, blooming wildflowers, singing birds, and quite literally tons of pollen in the air!

Kay and I did a bit of weeding and shrub trimming on Friday, and now we’re waiting on warmer soil temperatures before planting flowers for hummingbirds and butterflies. And when the wind would blow huge clouds of pollen would blow off the pine trees. We wised up a few days ago and each of us began taking an Allegra everyday to lessen the impacts of the pollen on our allergies

We also worked a bit in the crawl space which we use for storage. That occupied an entire Saturday morning. It is packed full of Christmas decorations, gardening equipment; sporting goods; fishing rods, reels and tackle; now unneeded RV accessories; and loads of empty cardboard boxes. Two large waste bags were filled with useless stuff for garbage haul-off, and other items were identified and sorted for sale on Facebook marketplace or as donations for the large Women of Faith garage sale in early May. We hardly made a dent!

I ventured out to nearby Middle Fork Barrens Natural Area on Sunday, March 30, in search of white Trout Lilies. No such luck. However, other wildflowers were blooming, adding a bit of color to the mostly prairie floor. 

Monday through Monday, September 16-30, 2024—Was It The Greatest Butterfly Day Ever

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There’s not much to report this two-week period; we continued with our usual activities and meetings. A couple of highlights, though, were dinner out and cards with the Nobles and our annual COVID and flu injections.

Dinner on Friday, September 20, 2024, was at Mulligan’s, and Kay, Celeste Noble, and I had catfish while Tom had pizza. Kay and I used to eat catfish there every Friday evening when Troy and Patty owned and operated it, but had not been overly impressed when new owners/operators took over. This particular Friday evening was good. I can’t remember the card game we played, but it was similar to Hand-and-Foot and Tom won ALL the games!

A couple of butterflies and a hummingbird were photographed Saturday, September 21, 2024.

On Thursday, September 26, 2024, Kay and I had our annual flu and COVID injections. And, as usual I began having a reaction to the COVID injection at 2 AM the following morning. The reaction is tolerable, but a nuisance—fever, achy joints, and a headache—lasting about 48 hours. It is yucky at best.

Sunday, September 29, 2024, was a great day for butterfly photography. In fact, it’s the best day we’ve ever had in our yard. The small butterfly garden was full of various species of butterflies flitting here and there, nectaring on the wide variety of flowering plants. Of special note, a Long-tailed Skipper briefly appeared before disappearing for the day; however, I did get a decent photo of it. It’s only the second Long-tailed Skipper I’ve seen in Arkansas.

Also a first in the garden was a Gulf Fritillary.

And then a huge Great Spangled Fritillary, a bit worse for wear, was seen nectaring on a nearby flower.

The first Monarch butterfly to grace the garden then flew in for a brief visit.

And finally, a tiny Red-banded Hairstreak was spotted on a flower; this was another first-time visitor to the garden.

Not to be outdone, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird seemingly begged to be photographed.