It's Friday, TGIF! It's also a double digit day! 😁 Today's image is one of my Weigelia bush that I have had growing in a pot for years. It still blooms faithfully in the Spring even though I usually neglect it. It had some wonderful bubbly bokeh in the background so I had to share it today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!
It has been a weird Spring, very cool, we are still having 40s and 50s in the mornings, and fairly rainy. I am finally seeing some more butterflies around. Hope to see more. This was one that was visiting my Milkweed that I planted for Monarchs. This is a Mourning Cloak butterfly. Apparently it is name due to someone wearing a bright dress under their dark one and letting a bit of it show while in mourning. Adult butterflies hibernate over the winter and are usually one of the first to emerge in Spring.
It's Wildflower Wednesday here on the Blog! The Yuccas are in bloom right now and are quite healthy looking with all the rain we have received lately. I captured these blooms in a close up, I had never really paid much attention to the details of them before, just the plant in general. Yuccas generally bloom in May and June and are part of the Asparagus family. Their roots can grow quite long horizontally. When soaked or rubbed in water the roots can be used as a soap substitute and the plant is often known as "Soapweed".
So I got really lucky recently with a Heron sighting. I was on a bike ride and stopped by the spillway at Milford Lake. I had looked and saw nothing in the water where I usually find them and so was mainly looking for lizards. I happened to look down the way to where some people were fishing and what did I see standing in the water...a Great Blue Heron! I could not believe it. There was someone else opposite it taking photos of it and I was able to get closer and get several shots and it didn't even seem to care. It was quite amazing.
Happy Monday and happy new week! Spring is going so quickly. Soon it will be boiling hot if not already, I do these in advance. 😊 I miss a lot of the Spring flowers that last such a short time. This is an image of my one Crabapple Tree's blossoms that was so beautiful and perfect for such a short time. I wish I had had time to sit under it for hours and enjoy it but, alas, too much to do and so little time.
It's Steamy Sunday here on the Blog once again. It's June and we are halfway through the year already! Wow! Today's locomotive is the last one I ran on my mini steam up in early May on the new/used raised layout. This is my Accucraft Live Steam Emma. Emma is a model of a Brooks industrial 0-4-0T. Brooks Locomotive Works, of Dunkirk, New York was an important supplier of locomotives to railroads and industry. In 1901, Brooks and several other locomotive builders merged to become the American Locomotive Company, or ALCO. It's a bit larger than a usual G scale locomotive which is generally 1:29, this one is 7/8 scale. It's a really fun locomotive to operate though and it's run time is quite long as it has good size water and fuel tanks.
I have a video of it operating on YouTube HERE.
