A Walk in the Woods
Last weekend, Dad decided we should take advantage of the beautiful weather (which will end to quickly) and take a motorcycle ride to a hilly forested area with the rest of the family following behind in the van. It was lovely, with the trees beginning to turn colors, and the whole family enjoyed it immensely. I shot these pictures:
Daniel Dances
After watching me working on my extension for ballet, Daniel decided he must join in the fun. He was adorable striking poses in his brand new pajamas.
Unbelievable
My Dad found this rope laying exactly in this position behind the organ the other night:
Dad, Landon and I are the only ones in the house who would know this musical symbol, and neither of us arranged the rope this way. It's almost a perfect treble clef.
Birds and Butterflies
Last year I let the weeds take over the garden. This year, however, I’ve been keeping on top of the weeds (with help from Johnathan, Alexander, and Joseph), and my perennial garden is really thriving. This has drawn a multitude of butterflies to our yard, and species I had never even seen in our yard, such as tiger swallowtails, now visit us daily. Today I was also fortunate enough to see a viceroy on the aptly named butterfly bush, a kind of butterfly I didn’t even know lived in South Dakota. It was kind enough to stay around long enough for me to run inside and get my camera, and let me get really close to it.
God gave the Viceroys a very effective disguise, and they look like the poisonous monarch to fool birds. The only way to tell them apart is by the line the viceroy has on the hindwings, which the monarch lacks.
Tiger swallowtails are very easy to catch, and I caught this one with only my hands! I brought it inside to show Mom and the boys, then let it go again outside.
Coneflowers attract not only butterflies, but hungry goldfinches as well!
My Gardening Buddy
Daniel is very fond of ‘helping’ me in the garden. He loves to tag along by my side, carrying a shovel along with him, blissfuly happy to be doing exactly what I am doing.
He will point to any plant he sees and ask, “Weed?” If I tell him he is correct, he will rip as many leaves off as he can with a disgusted face:
Sometimes he is lucky and pulls out the root as well. Other times he gets carried away-
-and doesn’t ask whether his prey is a weed or not. Here he is repentant for pulling a balloon flower bloom.
If I tell him the plant is a flower, he will bend down to smell it.
Grotto of the Redemption
After a family reunion in Iowa last week, we visited the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend Iowa, which is the largest man-made grotto in the world. It was lovely.
Joseph and his patron, St. Joseph
Mary in the home.
Aside from the beautiful stones and statues, the grotto also has a family of swans and corn to feed them.
Garden Tour
On Wednesday my Grandma took Maria and I on to a Garden Tour. It was a lovely day, cool with a fresh breeze blowing gently. We rode a school bus (for the first time) to five different gardens around our city. The gardens ranged in size from a normal backyard to a giant estate, and were very fun to look at. I took a lot of pictures of the flowers we saw, and some of them turned out very well:
This water lily is my favorite.
There was a man taking pictures of flowers, and he showed me a couple nice pictures he had taken of bees on flowers.. He asked me if I had any pictures of bees. When I replied I hadn't, he chided me for "Not watching out for those bee pictures." So I stood in front of a patch of coneflowers and waited, hoping to shoot a bee photograph. A few moments later, Maria called my attention to what she thought was a monarch butterfly. I quickly turned my camera in its direction, and as it alighted on a flower, I was able to snap a picture. At the same time, I realized it wasn't a monarch, but a butterfly I had never seen before. Later I found out it was either a Aphrodite Fritillary or a Great Spangled Fritillary. (They are distinguished from each other only by a small marking on the underside of the wings, which I never got to see.)
Daniel the Ant Hunter
When our home was invaded by a swarm of ravenous ants, Daniel rushed to our defense. Armed with his trusty ping-pong paddle and comb, he fought and vanquished each ant single handed!
"Did I get it?"
Mood Swings
From zero:
To sixty:
