Wednesday 22 July 2015

All aflutter

The summer days seem to float or flutter by, infinitely beautiful but too soon a memory.

I have seen so many butterflies this year, I don't know whether that is because of our hot dry weather or a fancy of Nature, but I am enjoying every wing beat.

Here are pictures of Swallowtail butterflies visiting a well named Butterfly bush.

"The Western Tiger Swallowtail is very similar to the other tiger swallowtails with its distinctive black stripes on a yellow background. The lunulate submarginal markings on the underside of the hindwing are all yellow, while the submarginal spots on the forewing underside form a band. The uppermost spot on the border of the hindwing above is yellow. Wingspan: 65 to 90 mm."
 (http://www.cbif.gc.ca/eng/species-bank/butterflies-of-canada/western-tiger-swallowtail/?id=1370403265809)

I find butterflies difficult to photograph because they don't stay still for long. They are more active with the hotter weather too. So when I spotted this Butterfly Bush covered with Western Swallowtail Butterflies I just had to stop and catch their flutter in my cameras shutter.
 
 
 
"Love is like a butterfly, it goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes.
Love is like a butterfly, hold it too tight, it'll crush. Hold it too loose, it'll fly."
 
Author unknown
 

 
"I would like to think that the singer is the butterfly, and the drummer was just the little grub in the ground, working to become a caterpillar."
Robert Wyatt 


 
“I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days - three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.” 
 
John Keats

 
 
“We are all butterflies. Earth is our chrysalis.” 
 
LeeAnn Taylor
 

 
“The caterpillar does all the work, but the butterfly gets all the publicity.” 
 
George Carlin

 
"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough." 

Rabindranath Tagore

 
"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."R.H. Heinlein


 "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."Maya Angelou


 
"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." 

Hans Christian Anderson


That's all the photographs I have for today, hope you have enjoyed them.
 
 
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Here is a painting that I did this week. It is an ink and watercolour painting of Siwash Rock in Stanley Park.




"Siwash Rock, also known by its Squamish name Skalsh or Slhx̱i7lsh, is a famous rock outcropping in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada's Stanley Park. A legend among the Indigenous Squamish surrounds the rock. It is between 15 and 18 metres tall (50–60 feet). It became known to mariners as Nine Pin Rock for its vague resemblance to a bowling pin at one point too."
 
"About 32 million years ago, a volcanic dike formed in the sedimentary rock that forms the foundation of the park (sandstone and mudstone). Magma was forced to the surface through a fissure in the Earth's crust creating the basalt stack, which is more resistant to erosion than the softer sandstone cliffs. Siwash Rock is the only such sea stack in the Vancouver area."
Wikipedia
 
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Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post.
 
Thanks for stopping by,
 
happy Whimsy Wednesday,
 
Gillian