these are for my gardener friends who make art with their skills

she studied art but
discovered that her best works
were created in soil

a memory comes
of the fragrant lavender
on a summer day

I don’t usually take photos in this bright light, but that does seem to be when most of the butterflies are in the garden. This shot was taken against dark shadows, so the bushes really stand out. The bottom photo was taken a couple of days ago. This bee chased the butterflies off the coneflowers several times. It happpened again today, is that common? Anybody know what kind of bee this is?

The hot pink of the oleracea is even brighter than it looks here. I just read that portlaca comes from Brazil, a country I associate with bright colors. The bottom photos are the sundial plant that I bought for 50 cents at a sale. Proud to say, it has recovered nicely. This plants has at least five colors in different shades.

The house was hot this morning, so I decided to take my camera outdoors to see what I could shoot. Some days, nothing works, and I end up deleting more photos than I keep. Today was a good day for my camera. I have photos to last the next week.

The top photo was not planned, and very unexpected. I was standing at the edge of the field, watching for dragonflies, when something buzzed by my head. The sound was like a mosquito, but ten times louder. It landed in the tall grass right in front of me. Of course, I took a couple photographs. I could see that it was some sort of cicada, and watched while it flew to a small wild cherry tree, and slowly headed down toward the ground.

Later, when I looked at my photos, I got out my Audubon Field Guide to New England (thanks Mom, I use this all the time) and learned that it was actually a Dogday Harvestfly. This is my second run in with a large flying insect this week. Look back a couple of days, to see the Dobsonfly. I read up on this new one here.

The bottom photo is a shot I took of one of the marjoram plants in the garden. The wasps have been feeding there all week. I wanted to see if I could capture their bright shiny wings. I did, but am not sure what they are. Could they be Flower Wasps?

The top shot is looking out across Casco Bay. You can see lots of islands and Fort Gorges. The second shot is down in the harbor. My husband works in one of those buildings in the background. I am in town to celebrate my friends’ birthday at the floating restaurant (an old ferry) in the harbor. Later, we walked along the waterfront, and visited the Old Port, just up the hill. The last shot was taken there.  By the way, this is Portland, Maine.