Fall Zinnia Update

October 31, 2013 - 2 months, 1 week after planting the seeds...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

November 12 -- day before the first light freeze

 

 

 

 



 

 



 

 

 



 



Black Swallowtail

As I pulled in the driveway after work today, a black swallowtail butterfly was sippin' pollen from the Plumbago bushes out front. I didn't have my camera, but I just had to write about it after all the caterpillars I blogged about back in the spring. I hope they lay some more eggs and continue the miraculous life cycle of caterpillars, cocoons, butterflies, etc. What a wondrous thing to observe!
http://joansjoys.blogspot.com/2013/03/oh-caterpillar.html
http://joansjoys.blogspot.com/2013/04/chrysalis.html
http://joansjoys.blogspot.com/2013/04/saturday-sunday.html

Albuquerque Botanical Garden

After strolling through the aquarium, we sauntered over to children's fantasyland in the botanical gardens. There's a lovely horseshoe shaped bench made of glazed tiles that pieced together create a beautiful garden. All along the topside of the mosaic bench is a stream flowing through glazed ceramic rocks. There's also a colorful tiled pool spilling water into another pool. On the way to the enclosed butterfly garden, we stopped at this beautiful stained glass mosaic, then went on to feast our eyes on all sorts of butterflies.

Wildflowers and Butterflies

The Outdoor School

Marble Falls, Texas

On Sunday we drove out to Marble Falls to see Camp Champions where Rachel has been working since February. After a delicious lunch at the Fish Camp & Grill, Rachel took us on a great adventure through the wonderland of wildflowers on the camp's property. The camp is right on the lake, but we didn't even go to the water because the wildflowers got all of our attention. After our tour Rachel treated us to strawberry cobbler she had made the day before. We sat up on the second story deck eating cobbler and ice cream, relaxing, and shootin' the breeze with Rachel and Perry. From there we had a nice view of the lake and the camp. It was a lovely Sunday afternoon... and the weather couldn't have been nicer!