Seedpod of Datura sp.?
A bright splash of colour
Fall colour
The centre of a labyrinth
Long gone, but memories remain
Like floral flames for a deep-freeze day
A welcome splash of red
Beginning to burst
The droplet
Beauty in the final stage
Remembering summer colours
A splash of colour on a snowy day
Colour for winter
Downy Woodpecker and bokeh
A splash of fall colour
Cheery sunflower
Unidentified fruit
Summer colour
Colour from Ornamental Cabbages
Typically Western
Just needed colour
Heart of a Snowdrop
Aloe Vera / Aloe Barbadensis Miller, Blue Waters I…
Tropical Mockingbird, Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Allamanda, Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Tropical tree, Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Shiny Cowbird / Molothrus bonariensis, Tobago
Giant seedpod of the Flame Tree, Blue Waters Inn,…
Gorgeous orange flowers of the Flame tree
Ixora, Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Down by the sea
Tropical Mockingbird / Mimus gilvus, Tobago
Ixora
Tropical Mockingbird with attitude
Tropical Mockingbird / Mimus gilvus, Tobago
Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Tropical Mockingbird, Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Steps from my cabin to main building, Asa Wright
A potful of owls
Ageless beauty
Artichoke, Saskatoon Farm
Himalayan Blue Poppies
Lilium martagon - the beauty of a Lily
Gaillardia
Summer colour
Hearts at the Rusty Bucket Ranch
Garden flowers at the Rusty Bucket Ranch
Nemophila sp.
Ruby-throated Hummingbird female
Celosia sp.
My new neighbour?
Day Lily
A pot full of colour
Splash of colour
Geranium sp.
Red Birds in a Tree plant
When the last petal has fallen
Hosta flowers
A filtered Poppy
Checkered Skipper sp.?
American Goldfinch eating Sunflower seeds
Bee on Sunflower
Hybrid Mourning Dove-Eurasian Collared Dove
Oak leaf and insect gall
Colour for a snowy day
Narcissus
Raindrops
Half Moon Garden, Silver Springs
Clematis after the rain
Ornamental Cabbage or Ornamental Kale?
That sinking feeling
Lest we forget
Simplicity
Snake's head fritillary, Fritillaria meleagris
The second owl
A colourful walk through the woods
A splash of different colour
A big splash of colour
Aging beauties
The Wall Garden - October is Breast Cancer Awarene…
Bark colour after the rain
Fall colours at Silver Springs Botanical Gardens
Always good for a splash of colour
Purple Petunias
Sunflower going to seed
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Astilbe
Passion Flowers
As fall colours come to an end
Larch in fall colour
Owl sculpture at Silver Springs Botanical Gardens
Brightness on a cloudy day
Tenderness
Glorious colours of fall
Autumn berries
Juvenile White-throated Sparrow / Zonotrichia albi…
The colours of fall
A garden in the forest
Lovage / Levisticum officinale
Pine Siskin at Jackie's
Loved by Monarch butterflies
Memorial Rose for Carl Handfield
Splash of colour on a rainy day
Old cabin on Gottlob Schmidt's (Schmitty's) land
They can't see me
Bold and beautiful
Ladybug larva on Showy Milkweed
Showy Milkweed / Asclepias speciosa
Egyptian Walking Onion
Yesterday's summer hail
Iris at Olds College Botanical Gardens and Wetland…
Ornamental Spurge / Euphorbia polychroma (Cushion…
Red-edged petals
Needed a change of colour
Hollyhock buds
Farm seed elevator, Ellis Bird Farm, Alberta
Bee nesting box
A colourful little corner
The purity of white
Flowers of spring
Is this a Pink?
Snake's head fritillary / Fritillaria meleagris
Red Baneberry
Much-needed colour
The joy of spring
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192 visits
Showy Milkweed with bee
Happy Thanksgiving to all Americans, everywhere!
Wanted to wish all Americans, at home or living in other countries around the world, a wonderful Thanksgiving today. Special thoughts to those who are serving their country, and their families, especially those who will not be able to spend the day together. I do hope you all have a happy and safe day. No matter what our circumstances are, there are always endless things, large and small, to be thankful for, especially when compared to those who live in many less fortunate countries around the world. Enjoy your turkey dinner, if you are lucky enough to have one, and enjoy the company of family and friends, if you are fortunate enough to have either or both! Our Canadian Thanksgiving was on 10 October this year.
On 30 June 2016, I just made it in time for a botany visit to our main naturalist leader's home and garden. He and his wife have an amazing garden, full of so many kinds of flowers, including a good variety of native plants. One of my favourites is Showy Milkweed - love the cluster of individual flowers growing on a rounded head. These plants have spread over a lot of the front garden. All they need now is for Monarch butterflies to fly a bit further north than they usually do and discover this little bit of butterfly heaven. In 2012, though, it was very unusual, as people were seeing a few of these amazing butterflies in Alberta, including in Calgary. I even got to see and photograph a few Monarch caterpillars in this garden in July 2012, for the very first and last time. Milkweed does not normally grow in Calgary, though we have seen a plant or two growing in the wild at one location in the city.
"Monarchs only use milkweed for their eggs - no other plant will do. There is a good reason for this. Milkweed is poisonous and the caterpillars absorb the poison into their bodies, thus making them immune to predators." From edmontonnaturalizationgroup. The National Geographic has an amazing, fascinating video of the life story of these spectacular butterflies - couldn't find a link to it, unfortunately.
edmontonnaturalizationgroup.org/blog/2012/08/13/wildflowe...
""Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner, as the pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains, as is typical for plant pollen. The flower petals are smooth and rigid, and the feet of visiting insects (predominantly large wasps, such as spider wasps, which visit the plants for nectar) slip into notches in the flowers, where the sticky bases of the pollinia attach to the feet, pulling the pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Bees, including honey bees only gather nectar from milkweed flowers, and are generally not effective pollinators despite the frequency of visitation.
Species in the Asclepias genus grow their seeds in pods. These seed pods contain soft filaments known as either silk or floss. The filaments are attached to individual seeds. When the seed pod ripens, the seeds are blown by the wind, each carried by several filaments." From Wikipedia.
Our leader also has a large vegetable garden. One thing that always fascinates me is the Egyptian Walking Onion. Each one seems to take on its own artistic shape and I love to photograph these - both fascinating and quite beautiful.
In the afternoon of this day, we experienced a huge rain and hail storm. Fortunately, it cleared up in time to go on Don Stiles' annual evening Bluebird route trip. I always look forward to going with Don on his nest box route, checking on a few of the boxes and finding either Bluebird or Tree Swallow eggs or babies. Don records all the information about numbers and dates, and also demonstrates how he carefully bands the young birds. Thanks, as always, Don, for an enjoyable evening outing and thank you for all the many, many years (must be somewhere around 35?) you have spent helping to preserve our beautiful Bluebirds. We all enjoyed seeing the various other bird species during the evening, too.
Wanted to wish all Americans, at home or living in other countries around the world, a wonderful Thanksgiving today. Special thoughts to those who are serving their country, and their families, especially those who will not be able to spend the day together. I do hope you all have a happy and safe day. No matter what our circumstances are, there are always endless things, large and small, to be thankful for, especially when compared to those who live in many less fortunate countries around the world. Enjoy your turkey dinner, if you are lucky enough to have one, and enjoy the company of family and friends, if you are fortunate enough to have either or both! Our Canadian Thanksgiving was on 10 October this year.
On 30 June 2016, I just made it in time for a botany visit to our main naturalist leader's home and garden. He and his wife have an amazing garden, full of so many kinds of flowers, including a good variety of native plants. One of my favourites is Showy Milkweed - love the cluster of individual flowers growing on a rounded head. These plants have spread over a lot of the front garden. All they need now is for Monarch butterflies to fly a bit further north than they usually do and discover this little bit of butterfly heaven. In 2012, though, it was very unusual, as people were seeing a few of these amazing butterflies in Alberta, including in Calgary. I even got to see and photograph a few Monarch caterpillars in this garden in July 2012, for the very first and last time. Milkweed does not normally grow in Calgary, though we have seen a plant or two growing in the wild at one location in the city.
"Monarchs only use milkweed for their eggs - no other plant will do. There is a good reason for this. Milkweed is poisonous and the caterpillars absorb the poison into their bodies, thus making them immune to predators." From edmontonnaturalizationgroup. The National Geographic has an amazing, fascinating video of the life story of these spectacular butterflies - couldn't find a link to it, unfortunately.
edmontonnaturalizationgroup.org/blog/2012/08/13/wildflowe...
""Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner, as the pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains, as is typical for plant pollen. The flower petals are smooth and rigid, and the feet of visiting insects (predominantly large wasps, such as spider wasps, which visit the plants for nectar) slip into notches in the flowers, where the sticky bases of the pollinia attach to the feet, pulling the pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Bees, including honey bees only gather nectar from milkweed flowers, and are generally not effective pollinators despite the frequency of visitation.
Species in the Asclepias genus grow their seeds in pods. These seed pods contain soft filaments known as either silk or floss. The filaments are attached to individual seeds. When the seed pod ripens, the seeds are blown by the wind, each carried by several filaments." From Wikipedia.
Our leader also has a large vegetable garden. One thing that always fascinates me is the Egyptian Walking Onion. Each one seems to take on its own artistic shape and I love to photograph these - both fascinating and quite beautiful.
In the afternoon of this day, we experienced a huge rain and hail storm. Fortunately, it cleared up in time to go on Don Stiles' annual evening Bluebird route trip. I always look forward to going with Don on his nest box route, checking on a few of the boxes and finding either Bluebird or Tree Swallow eggs or babies. Don records all the information about numbers and dates, and also demonstrates how he carefully bands the young birds. Thanks, as always, Don, for an enjoyable evening outing and thank you for all the many, many years (must be somewhere around 35?) you have spent helping to preserve our beautiful Bluebirds. We all enjoyed seeing the various other bird species during the evening, too.
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