A Date with the Butterflies

Today was such a beautiful day outside, even though it's the end of July, which typically around here is the hottest part of Summer (well from now into August) we have had a break from the heat and the highs were in the 70's, with a nice breeze! That's my kind of weather believe me, I just wish it would continue! *giggle*

Since it was so nice, I decided I just had to take a little bit and go outside, even though I had plenty to do inside. This morning I managed to finish sealing the corn I had frozen, with my seal a meal (I have to freeze it first, because the corn has enough liquid on it to make it almost impossible to seal the bag, unless it's frozen), make two batches of cheese by myself, since Galen was busy outside, and do some laundry, dishes (both in the dishwasher and the pans that I have to do by hand) as well as cleaning the kitchen a little. All that after I did a few things on the computer...so I guess I felt I deserved a break.

So after doing a little more on the computer and trying to help a friend with something she was doing online, I set out with my camera to go see if the butterflies I saw dancing around the flowers (weeds) on top of the hill the other day were still around. As I got to the top of the hill I saw a beauty, but it flew off, so I continued on to my destination.



This is the first butterfly I focused on, and I got several of it as it danced around the flowers.



Then I captured several of this one, which wasn't near as pretty to me. So I decided to go back and see if I could see the real beauty.



There it was...that beautiful Monarch butterfly, drawn to one of those pesky thistles that we are suppose to get rid of. As you can see we miss a few here and there (but let me just say there are LOTS LOTS LESS on the place now, than when we bought it! LOL)...and boy am I glad it was there. This beautiful Monarch stayed on the Thistle for quite a while and I got a ton of photos of it there, and it even opened it's wings for me! Needless to say I was excited, and kept creeping closer and side to side, as it would move around the flower.



As you can see, especially in that very first photo on this post, the wings look a little worn, but it was still beautiful to me.



I stayed with it snapping photos till it decided it had had enough...of the thistle or me I don't know...and danced off out of range of my lens.

I got so many photos of it and a lot of them pretty good (least to me) I had trouble deciding which to keep and which to reject. I finally managed to decide...then decided that I'd have to share some of the ones I am keeping, here on my blog. These and the rest will eventually make it into the stock photos in my store.



Once it left, I went back to my original destination and captured a few of this yellow butterfly...it's really pretty when it's flying because the inside of it's wings have black on it but as you can see...



...I suck at capturing them in flight! LOL There is another one here if you want to confirm it...I am not good enough to get them flying yet...but I'll have to try to work on it....if I can. I think these two "flying" photos would have been kinda neat, if the butterfly had been in focus.



This yellow butterfly wasn't as nice to me because it didn't lay its wings flat while it was on the flower, so I could capture it's true beauty, but it was still kinda neat.

All in all I had a good day, because I got quite a bit done that I needed to do, AND I got some beautiful photos of the butterflies that grace our farm...including a bunch of one of my favorites...the Monarch. There aren't near as many Monarch's around as there are other kinds, so I was thrilled to have found one to get photos of. I hope you enjoyed them to! :)

I hope all of you had a beautiful day too and thanks so much for your comments, both here and through e-mails! :)