Luna Moth

 We had a heck of a rain storm yesterday, even with threats of hail and tornadoes. When there was a break in the storm I took our dog Ziva out for a walk. Every thing was sopping wet. We walked by the clump of yucca that had been so pretty a month ago and I thought 'that's a strange leaf'. So I looked closer and say it wasn't a leaf but a Luna moth. And it wasn't even wet. I snapped a couple of shots of it with my cell phone. On returning to the house I got my Cannon camera and went back to see if it was still there. It was. So I took a bunch of photos. Here are some of them. This was the first Luna moth I had ever seen. It was large, bout 4 inches across and just as long. The antenna looked like little feathers attached to it's head. In the one picture you can see the white body and the dark legs are clinging to the long yucca leaf. I read about Luna moths and discovered that the caterpillar like to eat hickory tree leaves as well as some other leaves. Hummm Maybe that is why I found him just about under one of the large hickory trees on our property. The Luna moth is so pretty it has been used on a postage stamp and in a sleep aide commercial.

these are photos of the hickory tree leaves the Luna moth like to eat and some hickory nuts that are still green. And the squirrels like to eat those. 

Sunday Outing

 Last Sunday we went for a drive. First stop was under the bridge that spans the Ohio River with Milton, KY on the south side and Madison, IN on the north side. From there we watched a couple of the speed boat races that were taking place on the Ohio River. We had never seen a speed boat race. Interesting but might have been better if we had been closer. Had to use my zoom lens to get these few photos. You can see the big spray the boats created as they rounded the turn close to us. There was a boat there to indicate the turn.

Here you can sort of see the area where the speed boats were dropped into the water by the three cranes that were there. The same cranes lifted the boats out after a race. From what I could see it was usually two boats racing at a time. With a long, long wait between races, which got rather boring so we only watched for about an hour. We spent a lot of that time talking to a couple of people that were watching from the same place under the bridge.

leaving the races we took a drive to one of our favorite places in Carrollton, Ky. This photo is of the large pond going into General Butler State Park. The next is a close shot of the point you can see in this picture. There is a path and a pinic table there but we didn't go out this day. Was to hot and humid. This view can be seen when driving the main road through Carrollton. There is a pull off there if you want to stop.

This is the other side of the pond and I got a fair shot with reflextions of the trees on the far bank.

Trees seen at the Lookout Point in the park.

On our way out of the park we saw a buzzard or maybe a vulture sitting up in a dead tree. These big birds can be seen flying all over Kentucky. Not as pretty as other birds but are so valuble to clean up the dead animals (deer, raccoons, possoms, and others) seen along road ways.

Wild Flowers

Every week or so I find a different wild flower that I have never seen before. Kentucky seems to be just full of little wildflowers. But then I have found that to be true most places if you get out and look. In my opinion most people do not take time to LOOK and see what is around them. These are the wildflowers I have found this week. These blue ones are chicory. I love this color.

This was smaller than it looks in the photo and maybe it is what is sometimes called oxeye daisy.

This little inch long orange flower was very cute and looked similar to some orchids but I couldn't find anything like it in my books or on the internet. They like to hang under the leaves of the plants they are on so I ended up putting some on top of the leaves so I could get photos. Other wise they were to shaded by the leaves.

I knew these looked like a carrot, but I didn't know there were wild carrots. The flowers are beautiful. A flat cluster of small flowers that can be as much as 4 or 5 inches across. I haven't pulled one up to see if there is the orange root on them.

Notice the bee on this wild carrot. (lower center of the photo.)

These yellow flowers were in a large group of plants. I haven't found a name for them yet.

Last fall I saw some dried, stickery, seed pots that I wondered what kind of flower they came from. I think this flower might be them. This is what I saw first, and thought it was some sort of thistle. I was surprised a few days later to see the cluster of tiny, light blue/purple flowers on what I thought was the flower. Very pretty and the bees love them. Still think it is a thistle but haven't found it in my research.

Flowers With Raindrops

I took these photos after a rain shower the other day before the rain drops had a chance to evaporate off the blossoms. Orchid blossoms.

 Pansy.

Putunia.

Natures Fireworks

Tonight Mother Nature decided to honor us with her own display of fireworks for the evening before our United States Independence Day. All the beauty without the noise.