Finally All Settled! Butterflies Galore!

The weather and the ocean have been too gorgeous to do anything but be on the beach or on the porch! Like last year, every flower has a butterfly of some kind on it. As I am inhibited by my ankle from taking long walks, I took out the camera this morning to see what I could hunt up just around the house and maybe next door. I was not disappointed! Lisa is relaxing on the porch in the comfy chair!

I have actually gotten myself set up for sewing and this is my view out the window of the second floor. Sewing is relegated right now to nighttime only as it is so nice outside! Earl really didn't do anything but stir up the waters quite a bit here. The renourished beaches are pretty intact and it is wonderful! Water is 84 degrees with air temps about the same and lovely breezes from about 11 in the morning on!

There have been a ton of butterflies flittering about, mostly the Cloudless Sulphurs (you will see one below). They have proved to be less than anxious to have their pictures taken. The Gulf Fritillaries were happy to pose for me in many positions this morning. This is the back and side of one. Until yesterday, I hadn't seen any but the population has exploded and their are hundreds of them and they are really as pretty as the Monarchs and in the same family as most of the butterflies I saw today are (Brush Footed Butterflies).

This is another view of the Gulf Fritillary. They look much different on the back and front.

This was a small butterfly which I have identified as a Crescent Phaon. It was finding small flowers amongst the ragweed. Their wingspan isn't much over an inch. It is also in the same family as the Gulf Fritillary.

I only saw one of these across the street so this is from quite a distance but I knew it was a different one. It is a Diana, dark with the white spots around the edges. Hopefully I will get a better picture at some point.

This I believe is a Silvery Checkerspot. This is also a very small butterfly.

The oleander are blooming in back and pretty against the green foliage and the bright blue sky.

This is the very elusive Cloudless Sulphur who is in the Whites and Sulphur family. I had one heck of a time getting any pictures of this fellow and he is quite a distance away. The sky has been lit with these bright yellow-green butterflies.

I finally finished quilting the second of my sunset quilts. I have had this and another top finished for a few years but was never confident enough to do the machine quilting. I did a lot of staring over time. I used Margaret Millers Easy Pieces block but of course did my own colorings and interpretation. The colors were at the request of my daughter (pictured above) who now says that was two houses ago! I was very pleased with the quilting I did but decided after it was done that it should be vertical rather than horizontal which I had originally pictured. This one was done with the leftover blocks from the first one which hasn't been machine quited yet (except to stabilize the top).

This is a closeup of the above on which hopefully you can see some of the stitching. You can double click to m ake it bigger.