a tiger swallowtail

In spite of the heat my sister and I visited Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve early yesterday. We walked between sun and shade, looking for flowers.

As we walked past a small pond we saw tiger swallowtail butterflies feeding on the flowers.

dahlia delight

Fuller Gardens in North Hampton, NH has a wonderful dahlia display garden that runs the length of the greenhouse. While most of the beds in the garden are the home of roses, the focus of this week's visit was dahlias.

I love seeing the beauty and variety of these flowers.

rabbit, rabbit

I went to visit the flowers but I also spent time watching baby rabbits.

Bunnies enjoyed the grassy areas at Fuller Gardens, resting, eating grass, watching people watching them.

sunflower colors

When I think of sunflowers I usually picture yellow petals.

Sunflowers come in different colors. This variegated red and cream flower caught my eye as I wandered through a garden.

daylily in red

My eyes popped open about an hour after sunrise today; it was time to move.

I took advantage of the quiet of early morning to wander in a nearby garden.

malachite butterfly

A malachite butterfly sits with wings folded. It wears many wonderful shades of green.

bright

While the flowers are relatively small, this looks like a type of sunflower to me.

Yellow petals provide a bright splash of color.

painted wings

Today I felt the need to visit some butterflies.

I am lucky to have 2 butterfly conservatories within a reasonable driving distance from home. While my preferred conservatory is Magic Wings in South Deerfield, MA, at 91 miles from home it's too far for a quick trip. I chose to visit The Butterfly Place in Westford, just 21 miles away. It was a good visit, a time for a bit of camera play and a time to chat with other visitors, to feel butterflies land on me and fly away again.

This beautiful creature didn't share its name with me. I'll keep searching.

If you'd like to see more butterflies, the first 20 photos in the gallery flitter, flutter, butterfly! 2023 are from today's visit.

a thistle and a fly

As I was walking yesterday I saw a garden decorated in bright pink thistle. When I returned later with my camera a fly was enjoying the flower.

cornflowers

The petals of a cornflower are interesting; they almost look like individual flowers pieced together in a circle.

pretty in pink

Coneflowers are starting to bloom.

The early flowers I've seen have all been wearing pink.