I’m over at Sally Cronin’s amazing Smorgasbord Magazine. She featured my post about the monarchs in my garden. Please join me to view this wonderful creature. There is no time like this to help the monarchs survive when, on July 21, 2022, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct.
Since this series began in January 2018 there have been over 1000 Posts from Your Archives where bloggers have taken the opportunity to share posts to a new audience… mine.
The topics have ranged from travel, childhood, recipes, history, family and the most recent series was #PotLuck where I shared a random selection of different topics. This series is along the same lines… but is a ‘Lucky Dip’. I have posts scheduled for another few weeks but that will bring this current series to an end. Another series will begin in the new year.
In this series I will be sharing posts from the half of 2022
Today author and poet Miriam Hurdle shares the wonder of enabling the beautiful monarch butterfly to develop in her garden in amazing photographs and videos
This week, the theme from Tina Schell, for the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge is focused on one of the most well-known and widely used rules of photography, the Rule of Thirds. She said, “For those who would like to study the concept further, there are many online descriptions and examples. Adobe offers an excellent summaryhere. Basically, the rule is a compositional guideline that encourages placement of your primary subject on at least part of three equal rows and three equal columns as illustrated below.”
The Adobe article entitled: How to use, and break, the rule of thirds
Rule of Thirds Grid
The idea is to place your subject on one (or more) of the grid lines, or even better on the dots, theoretically making the image more pleasing to the eye.
I’ve been taking photos since I was a teenager when there were only Black & White photos. As indicated in the Adobe article, “The more you do it, the more it gets ingrained into your head.” I apply the Rule of Thirds most of the time in my photo compositions.
I learned drawing and painting at a young age, the Rule of Thirds also applies to the composition of drawing, painting, and some other forms of art. I’ll post my photos and two of my paintings in this post.
There are many kinds of butterflies in my garden, Swallowtail, Monarch, Mourning Cloak, and Cabbage butterflies. A Monarch came back from the south early this year and is busy laying eggs. I collected 10 eggs so far. Three are in the chrysalis form, two are growing strong, and five are 1/8″ babies. I’ll post some Monarch photos later. I saw a Nymphalis antiopa, known as Mourning Cloak, a few days ago but didn’t take good photos. I took the following one a while ago.
There are many turtles in the lake within walking distance from home. This colorful turtle was sunbathing when I walked around the lake one day. The entire colorful body is attractive. The reflection of the sunlight made part of his body draw more attention.
I took the following photo in Maui, Hawaii. The crashing waves evoke my imagination. I strive to take photos with droplets dancing in the air as the waves splash the rocks.
The following are my two paintings. Naturally, the tree is the focus of the first painting and the butterfly is in the second painting.
My granddaughter Nora turns 2 today. Two years ago this week, California started the lockdown. I canceled my flight to be with my daughter for her giving birth to Nora. We waited and waited. It was her first birthday when we finally got to see her. Her 2nd birthday party will be the first indoor party we’ve had since the pandemic. It’s very exciting. We look forward to spending time with both Autumn and Nora.
My spring garden would like to sing to you.
“The first bloom of spring always makes my heart sing.” – S. Brown
Tea RosePansyTea Rose
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” – Audrey Hepburn
CyclamenDaffodil Freesia
“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.” – Ellis Peters
Snapdragon HyacinthsClover
“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot, and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” – Charles Dickens
DaffodilSnapdragonFreesia
“An optimist is the human personification of spring.” – Susan Bissonette
PetuniaIceberg RoseHibiscus
“No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.” – English Proverb
TheFriday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “if.” Linda invited usto start our post with the word “If.”
~ ~ ~
If I had a bigger garden, I would plantmore fruit trees and vegetables.
I have a good size garden and am grateful for all the flowers in my garden. My picture folder showed my garden was barren in 2003. I planted the flowers and trees a few at a time for the last eighteen years. I set a mental budget for gardening and didn’t spend too much money each year. Probably I spent the most this summer when I replaced many annual to perennial flowers.
Flowersin My Garden
I also tried to see what grows well in my garden. Some part of my garden gets full sun all day, while other part gets either the morning sun or evening sun. After we planted the Cypress trees in the backyard, they block the sun in the winter as the earth tilted.
Another factor about gardening is the soil and watering system. Hubby is in charge of the sprinkler system. He also takes care of the lawn while I take care of the flowers. He installed the sprinklers according to the needs of the lawn. As a result, some flowers get too much water, and some don’t get enough water. Well, I have to improvise and make change now and then. I don’t mind doing that. What I did was to plant the flowers that need more water in the areas that have more sprinkler heads and planted the flowers that don’t need so much water in the areas further from the sprinkler heads. Of course, I could ask him to add sprinkler heads in some areas.
I started with one patch of Lily of the Nile (African Lily). African lily can withstand drought because of its large, fleshy roots. Roots spread and fresh shoots grow. I transplant them on several spots and the sixty feet wide slopes in the back yard behind the retaining wall, spaced them every eight feet in eight patches. The photo below is in the front yard.
Lily of the Nile (African Lily)
When we renovated the front yard, I bought ten rose bushes, and they turned out to be in different shades of pink. Then I felt in love with the white iceberg roses and bought ten bushes.
Throughout the years, I planted different flowers. As mentioned above, I experimented with the kinds that do well in my garden. The flowers above and below included in this post are what I currently have.
Year-round: Geranium, Hibiscus, Pentas, Periwinkle (Vinca) Lantana, and Snapdragon
Spring: Freesia (yellow and purple) and Clover
Summer: Daylily and Sunflower
Winter: Cyclamen and Camelia
I have planted the bulbs for Daffodil and Iris, hope to see the flowers next year.
I took the photo of Daffodils from my daughter’s neighbor
I took this photo of Irises from my daughter’s neighbor
Fruit Trees
So far, I have two plum trees, one apple tree, and one orange tree. We hope to plant a dwarf lemon tree, blackberries and raspberries. Berries are invasive, so I need more planning before planting them.
Vegetables
I planted kale, orange and green bell pepper, and squash. They are not ready to harvest yet. I love to grow more vegetables if I had a bigger garden.
Our theme this week is the Ordinary, hosted by I. J. Khanewala. There are many places, moments, things that we would say are ordinary. We may be surprised when the ordinary takes a turn.
My husband, Lynton and I started out this summer like any previous ordinary summers. Even though we didn’t take international trips, we took a couple of local getaways trips. We visited the grandkids. I took advantage of the summer colors and got some new flowers.
Lantana and Vinca
As soon as the summer rolled around the corner, things became a domino effect and tuned into an extraordinary summer. It was almost unstoppable without affecting the long-term effect.
There was an old 10’x8’ metal shed in the backyard. We had it for fifteen years. Lynton and I assembled it together. It was a major project we worked on it without getting upset with each other. I did my part, laying out all the nuts and bolts and parts. When Lynton assembled the panels, I handed him whatever he needed. I helped to hold the panels when he joined them together. The shed reminded us we could work together. What’s the big deal? It’s a big deal when two professionals live under the same roof. We could do our own things separately, but it takes extra consideration when working on the same project.
Finally, the shed was ready to retire. It leaked. The wooden floor was rotten and partly collapsed. We needed a new shed. We moved out everything from the old shed. Lynton demolished it.
I wanted a risen shed which is sturdier. I set a budget, but after looking for all the models, we picked one which cost twice as much as my initial budget.
“We better have a slab for the foundation. I wouldn’t be able to make a good leveled wooden foundation,” he said.
We got two quotes, but neither showed up for the job. It was a chance meeting when Lynton talked to a cement guy at a gas station. He came to give us a quote. He and his crew did the slab.
The section of the wall behind the shed bulged and threatened to collapse. We asked the cement guy for a quote. His quote was more reasonable than the one we got years ago. We needed a new wall, eventually. It would be hard to do it afterwards because there were only a few feet between the shed and the wall. We decided to have it done.
The guy and his crew demolished the wall, dug two feet deep and two feet behind the wall to pour cement for the foundation. All the dirt dug up was piling up on our lawn. It took them six weeks to build the wall.
The new retaining wall in front of the slope and the cypress trees
Lynton put the new shed together almost all by himself. I only helped to hold up some panels when he joined them together.
The shed has several windows and many skylights The new shed sitting on a six-inch high slab
The soil in the backyard was hard after six weeks without water. We nurtured the soil and waited for the summer heat to die down. Then Lynton put in the new seeds for the grass. The grass in the above photo is new grass.
While the back yard construction was going on, I replaced many of the annual flowers to perennial. I picked the flowers for hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. Lantana was not my favorite flower because I thought it was not artistic. But it’s butterfly food. I raised 20 butterflies in the summer. Milkweed is for the butterflies to lay eggs. The adult butterflies need food, so it made sense to plant some flowers for butterfly food. Now I have pink or orange mixed colors, purple and yellow single color Lantana on the slope, in the backyard and front yard. They’re ready for the butterflies next year.
I planted more Sylvia for the bees because I need the bees to pollinate the plum and orange blossoms. I went crazy getting the Pentas when it was on sale. Not only the butterflies, but the hummingbirds and bees like them also.
LantanaSylviaPentas
For two months, the backyard was like a war zone. I’m glad the work is over. There shouldn’t be any more home improvement projects for the backyard for the remaining years we live in this house.
The Showers of Blessings 