Oh, No, More Butterfly Pictures!

Finally getting the new camera to take the kind of pictures I want! I figured practicing on flitting around butterflies was a good way to test things. This is the old familiar Monarch. There have been several visiting the last couple of days.

This is a Tiger Swallowtail. There have been a number of these as well! My neighbor has gotten into the swing of things and sent me another one I had never seen before so I will be looking out for him!

I have finished machine quilting the heron finally (after ripping out one heck of a lot of stitches that I didn't like). Now to just do the facing and the hanging sleeve!

Butterflies and Bird...

Still playing with the lenses and my camera and finally having more successes than failures but still not up to my standards! I am having fun trying to identify all the butterflies (and moths if I see any) that land on my neighbor's butterfly bush which sits right at the end of my driveway.

This is a Cabbage White and pretty common and one of the first butterflies out in the spring. This one has the black tipped ends and then one dot on each wing meaning it is a male. The females have two dots ! This one moves so fast I have had trouble getting a picture of him and had to go back to my telephoto lens finally.


This is again one of the Skippers which I think is a Peck's Skipper but may be wrong there.

And the Great Blue Heron is coming along. I have machine quilted all the sky background and most of his body and am trying to add some flying feathers with machine quilting to his front. May have to take a little artistic license here! It's coming along and I have been working on it quite a bit each day. You might see some of the detail if you double click on the image. His feathers are not done yet, nor is his head.

A Visit to Quilting by the Lake

Well, normally I would have some pictures to tempt you to take courses there next year but..... The "powers that be" have decided absolutely no pictures are to be taken at the quilt show or in any of the classrooms. In my opinion, this is beyond overkill -- don't they realize the that it is good advertising for the venue and the quality of the teachers. I don't know any bloggers that don't respect a sign on a student's work that says "Please No Photos". This would seem a better solution than such an absolute prohibition. All of the classes I have taken in other venues have taken this latter approach.


As I spent very little time there except to see a few friends, I decided to detour on the way home and go to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I knew it was a poor time of day to see any birds but thought I would check it out for a fall visit. Well, they have drained the main area!! They are rebuilding the habitat so much of the trail is closed as well. At least there were some beautiful wildflowers and it was a beautiful day for a drive! I didn't have binoculars with me but seeing Canada Geese close up is not much of a thrill anyway!


I believe these are wild Mallows! They certainly were large, plentiful and beautiful.

Becoming One With the New Camera!

Well, am having some fun with the new camera trying to identify all the butterflies on my neighbor's bush. So far there have been five different varieties, four of which I have good enough pictures to begin the identification process. This was a very small butterfly -- only about an inch long and he was moving all over the place. Haven't identified him specifically yet but he might be a Skipper of some kind!

This I believe is one of the tiger swallowtails. It is hidden here, but this is one bedraggled butterfly so I suspect he or she may be cocooning before too long. His body had long yellow and black stripes on it. So I have seen a Sulphur and a Painted Lady also but didn't get good pictures at all. These were relatively decent and I didn't use telephoto!

I also have gotten back to a little dyeing and Warren is now the proud owner of three very bright turquoise blue hats. I think they are a bit bright but he things they are just fine for blending in with the water when on his kayak and I notice he is already wearing one around!

The machine quilting on the Great Blue Heron is coming along as well although there is a lot so I am sure this will be a lengthy process and I have to take frequent breaks or my shoulders will object! Once I get started though, it is hard to stop.

I never thought I would enjoy the machine quilting part. I had always approached it with great trepidation, fearing I would somehow wreck the piece. Watching Phil Beaver on Simply Quilts was my magic moment. He said just to quilt around the objects when you start and then the quilting would come and that is how I approach it now. Only now I visualize that outline quilting ahead of time and the piece somehow tells me how to continue on. It seems my pieces are very noisy though and are constantly intruding on my well thought-out plans for completion!

Just Playing

The past three days have been spent just playing with my new toy. It is just like getting a new sewing machine after you have had your old one for many years. You want the new features but it just works differently and it is so much easier to go back to the tried and true and PREDICTABLE! These are some lilies growing in the garden.

This is just a broad look at the garden growing in front of the house.
I do know that to fully utilize the telephoto, I am going to have to have a tripod, something I have been avoiding. Things just work differently in this camera. When I get good pictures, they are much crisper than my old camera. Now I can take ten pictures in the time it took to get one before so I have had to delete many pictures off my computer after taking them as I would soon run out of room!

I believe this is a buckeye from the markings but don't know which one. Will have to do a little more research. This is the third variety of butterfly I have seen on my neighbor's Butterfly Bush in the last three days. Today is the first day we have been able to tolerate being outside for any period of time -- very nice. The weather has been really hot and humid for up here -- shaping up to be the warmest summer in history for this area.

A New Camera

Well, after doing a lot of research I finally broke down and got a digital SLR. I got the Canon Rebel XS (10 megapixel) and a Tamron 28-300 telephoto lens. I have always been pleased with the quality of the pictures I get with my Panasonic Lumix and if this camera can live up to those, I will be happy -- even happier if they are better (which I suspect they are!). The great part and the main reason I did the upgrade was that the Lumix was just plain slow. I am delighted by my ability to take a whole lot of pictures in the row and get them focused besides!! I have just begun to play with the settings. I am used to controlling some of these things but my first shots were using pretty much the auto ISO features although not the automatic setting. This was the inside of the last of our clematis with the macro end of this lens. Pretty good considering I got it for telephoto but it will do as a closeup. I also have the 17-55 lens that came with the camera and haven't played with that yet.

This was a closeup of the early buds (for us) on the Rose of Sharon next to the house.

The flowers in front of my neighbors -- you have seen these before. A hummingbird was flitting around but much to fast for the light this late in the day.

I looked at the properties and many of these pictures were taken with an effective ISO of 800 with little noticeable noise so that is good. I almost always use 100 ISO with my Lumix.

Rochester Civic Garden Center Tour

Our next door neighbors, Joe and Sharon, have had spectacular gardens which have grown and changed over the years and which now cover their property and change with the seasons. These have been recognized twice getting a local "Garden of the Month" award. Today they were part of a large fund raiser for the Rochester Civic Garden Center. They were one of ten gardens chosen from Rochester, all in Webster this year. It was estimated that 650 people took the tour. The weather was perfect.


The above picture and this one are of some of the beautiful hydrangeas they have throughout their yard.

Sharon on the far right is explaining some of the features of the garden in the back of the house. These are very much woodland gardens as we are a heavily wooded area. They have created paths through the woods back here and have sculptures and fountains as well.
This is another view of the back garden after the folks had left.

Again, the garden area in the back. Joe and Sharon took out a huge tree a few years ago which opened up this area to a bit more light.

This is the area right in front by the mailbox. You can see the sign announcing the tour at the far left.

This is looking at the front of the house. The butterflies were even cooperating by frequenting the butterfly bush to the right.

This is the fountain in the back garden.

There were many visitors in the front yard, some of whom were trying to figure who the crazy lady taking pictures was and why she was taking the pictures at all!


Sharon again escorting visitors in the back in the early morning. There was a constant stream of people from the time it opened until 4 in the afternoon when the tour ended.

Some more visitors in the afternoon. This is the view from my house. I get to enjoy these beautiful gardens without having to do any work. We always say our yard is the comic relief!