Pearl Crescent

On Sunday I happened to notice this tiny butterfly on my cosmos plant. I've probably seen this kind of butterfly many times before, as research tells me it's pretty common, but this time I actually SAW it and wondered about it. Maybe it was all the monarchs that preceded it. Or maybe it was just the camera and photo-taking. Anyway, I thought it was pretty and worthy of running back to the house for the camera. The little butterfly obliged and waited for me.

It stayed quite a long time, actually.

And it posed very nicely.

Then it decided to move over to the plains coreopsis plants.

Of course I had to search and find out what it was called. It happens to be a Pearl Crescent butterfly. It was pretty easy to identify, especially with the help of the Gardens With Wings website.

Just pretty... and playing

I dug up my wildflower bed in the spring and scattered some new seeds out there, but I didn't have much luck with anything growing, probably because my seeds were old and the timing of the rain wasn't the best. My old bachelor buttons and plains coreopsis grew here and there (and the weeds did VERY well, but I've finally managed to finish cleaning them out), and recently I noticed something that looked a bit different. It's now beginning to bloom, and I believe it's a cosmos.

There are only two flowers so far, but lots of potential for more.

I haven't had cosmos this color before. They're so bright and cheery! But have you noticed that yellow flowers seem to be the hardiest? It seems to me that there are always yellow flowers around. Okay, this is yellow-orangish, but still.....

My many-years-old black-eyed susans are blooming, too.

I did a bit of photo playing, cropping for different effects.

Close-ups are always fun.

Which of the three shots did you like the best?

There's another plant growing out there that I haven't identified. It doesn't have any buds on it yet, so I'll save that for another day, if indeed it blooms at all.

Now I'm going to jolt your eyeballs with a different color! My mini rose is blooming again, and this time it was not damaged by kittens (or whatever). A bit of misty rain makes it extra pretty.

That pink flower is an impatiens. It gives you an idea of how tiny the rose bush is!