My lavender is in full bloom with lots of pollinators. This bumblebee and skipper are super cute 🙂
in seeking sweetness
you find each little blossom
lavender lovers
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
Bright Bee and Butterfly blessings, Namu Amida Butsu, Namaste
~ Raven
This morning was beautiful. It got hot, though not bad, later in the afternoon. I was able to get the little native bee that protects the milkweed. These are a megachiles (leafcutting) type of bee and chase other insects away as well as grapple with honeybees to try and drive them off of their beloved milkweed. The skipper is a different type than yesterday’s.
hi, little skipper
do you love scabiosa,
the purple flower?
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
Bright Bee and Butterfly Blessings, Namaste, Namu Amida Butsu
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
~ Raven
Today has been sunny and pleasant. Today I have a native bee (with an ant looking on), a milkweed bug, and a skipper. I still await the appearance of my beloved milkweed beetles.
little insect friends
I’m curious about you
where you come and go
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
look who’s visiting
bees, beetles, and butterflies
it’s a sunny day
~ Raven Ariana Simons ©2017
Bright Butterfly and Bee Blessings, Namaste, Namu Amida Butsu
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
~ Raven
“sweet spring is your
time is my time is our
time for springtime is lovetime
and viva sweet love
(all the merry little birds are
flying in the floating in the
very spirits singing in
are winging in the blossoming)
lovers go and lovers come
awandering awondering
but any two are perfectly
alone there’s nobody else alive
(such a sky and such a sun
i never knew and neither did you
and everybody never breathed
quite so many kinds of yes)
not a tree can count his leaves
each herself by opening
but shining who by thousands mean
only one amazing thing
(secretly adoring shyly
tiny winging darting floating
merry in the blossoming
always joyful selves are singing)
sweet spring is your
time is my time is our
time for springtime is lovetime
and viva sweet love”
~ e. e. cummings
Forsythia on 3/16/14.
Click here for the post to photos for March 16, 2012, 2013, and more 2014.
Sunday, March 16, 2015 – A warm day with partly cloudy skies. The neighbor’s ornamental plum is blooming and growing leaves so fast that they blossoms are already falling. Yesterday they were mostly buds with a few blossoms open. The early tulips are directly beneath the tree and the box elder bug is on my Oregon grape.
“The sun just touched the morning;
The morning, happy thing,
Supposed that he had come to dwell,
And life would be all spring.”
~ Emily Dickinson
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
“blossom unfolding
coaxed by warm weather and sun
gilded with pollen”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Thai chili pepper blossom on 3/16/14.
Click here for the post to photos for March 17, 2012, 2013, and more 2014.
Monday, March 17, 2015 – Today was another unseasonably warm day that started off clear and sunny and developed into clouds. I saw my first butterflies, a checkered white (no photo of that one) and an orange one that I think is a silver bordered frittilary. If you click on the photos you can see that one has a ladybug at the bottom of the dandelion where the orange butterfly is sipping nectar. I also have my neighbors’ Buddha dressed up for St. Paddy’s Day and if you look closely at the horizontal photo you can see a jumping spider photo bombing his hat. A dove and a robin grace the day, along with tulips, plum blossoms, and a honeybee bum (at the top of the page).
“Describe plum-blossoms?
Better than my verses…white
Wordless Butterflies”
~ Reikan
“butterflies dancing
dear dandelions blooming
sip nectar my love”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste, Namu Amida Butsu, and Bright Spring Blessings ~ Raven
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
~ Apple, Inc.
Flashback Thursday, October 4, 2012 – This is my pick photo and it stars this sparkly pink begonia. I love how the late afternoon light shining through the petals have this lovely sparkling effect.
Flashback Friday, October 4, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars a cute little bird in Russian Olive 🙂
Saturday, October 4, 2014 – Today was lovely and sunny and I was blessed to see a little skipper. There have been very few butterflies or moths this year and I’m happy that I have a few stalks of lavender that re-bloomed late after a trim that seemed to draw the attention of this lone skipper. Today is day 4 of the month long poetry challenge.
“pretty blue sky day
almost like gentle summer…
soon there will be snow”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
“sunbeams and skippers…
on this lovely day it seems
this one steers the world”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Beautiful Butterfly Blessings and Namaste ~ Raven
Flashback Saturday, September 1, 2012 – This dramatic thunderhead with the lonely looking tree on a mountain is my pick photo for today.
Flashback Sunday, September 1, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars a native lasioglossum bee of on my goldenrod.
Monday, September 1, 2014 – Happy Labor Day and thank you to all the organic farmers! Also a big thank you to pollinators, soil organisms and other creatures that work so hard providing eco services for the planet!
The milkweed is fully going to seed and they are flying all around in the wind and sticking to other plants. I have also been moving seed where I want more milkweed to grow. A little butterfly came to visit, too! I hope you have all had an enjoyable day 🙂
“Come forth into the light of things;
let Nature be your teacher.”
~ William Wordsworth
“Every breath we draw is a gift . . .
every moment of existence is a grace.”
~ Thomas Merton
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Bright Bee Blessings and Namaste ~ Raven
Flashback Friday, August 31, 2012 – Thunderstorms on the Blue Moon of Hazel 🙂 Very magical considering we’ve had so little rain and few thunderstorms this season. This is my pick photo for the Blue Moon and I love how you can see the wind whipping the rain around. This pod is of trumpet vine.
Flashback Saturday, August 31, 2013 – This is my pick photo of the day and it stars a little native bee resting in a sunflower 🙂
Sunday, August 31, 2014 – Today we had a visit from a Monarch butterfly. This wayfarer probably came from afar rather than from the milkweed I grow in my yard. Her wings were tattered like she’d been flying for a long way.
“Illuminated
butterfly is magical.
I am enchanted”
~ Raven Ariana Simons
“Nature’s poetry
lit by light like stained glass wings,
Monarch butterfly“.
~ Raven Ariana Simons
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Bright Butterfly Blessings and Namaste ~ Raven
Flashback Thursday, July 5, 2012 – If you look closely at the big rain droplet ready to fall from this trumpet vine flower you can see trumpet vine leaves upside down.
Flashback Friday, July 5, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars a very cute shot of a red milkweed beetle. I’m happy to be able to provide habitat and have a population of this neat insect that lives entirely on milkweed 🙂 I’m also happy that my yard is providing valuable habitat for other insects (rare elsewhere) and has never been sprayed with poisons since we’ve lived here (now 22 years). It is amazing how much life our little yard hosts! We hope others will get on the bandwagon before it is too late!
Saturday, July 5, 2014 – Here are some of the community members in the apiary, including one of the ladies. You might notice that the flower fly (aka hover fly) looks like a bee. It is common to see photos of flower flies in article about honeybees. This can be a real pet peeve of entomologists and beekeepers. Flower flies and all these pollinators are awesome 🙂
“I do not exist to impress the world. I exist to live my life in a way that will make me happy.”
~ Richard Bach
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.”
~ Richard Bach
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Bright Bee Blessings and Namaste ~ Raven
Flashback Saturday, May 26, 2014 – During the cold wind this little English house sparrow is still singing and you can see his silhouette in full song with the thunderheads behind him.
Flashback Sunday, May 26, 2014 – This is my pick photo for today and it stars a ladybug larvae on my emerging sunchoke. I think this larvae may be close to transformation. I’m excited to see what sunchokes (related to sunflowers) look like when they bloom and taste like when I dig and eat the tubers (when they are ready).
Monday, May 26, 2014 – Watched a swallowtail butterfly lay eggs today.
May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.
~Irish Blessing
The green grass and the happy skies
court the fluttering butterflies.
~Terri Guillemets
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
~Rabindranath Tagore
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste ~ Raven
Flashback Thursday, May 10, 2012 – This beautiful blue clematis isn’t fully open yet, but I love its blue color. This awesome plant lives at my daughter and son’s, planted by my daughter, Joyful 🙂 I really love clematis and hope I can get more pictures when they are fully open and the wind isn’t being quite so playful.
Flashback Friday, May 10, 2013 – This is my pick photo for today and shows a closer look of the brightest part of the double rainbow and church spire.
Saturday, May 10, 2014 – I saw a painted lady butterfly amongst the other beauties of the day!
“Do an act of kindness every day, and your soul will be in constant bloom.”
~ Anthony Douglas Williams
“As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
Our hearts give thanks for the Grace in the Universe!
Namaste and Bright Bee Blessings ~ Raven
Grace and Mystery 