For Future Reference...

We found two interesting moths in the yard in recent weeks....I'm too busy now to try to ID them; there they are for the record.

We Sheltered Two Black Swallow Tail Butterflies to Adulthood this Summer

It's easy to google the instructions for harboring these little souls. If you leave them on the dill plants in your garden, the birds will eat them. It is interesting to watch them change indoors, sheltered and fed with fresh dill gathered each day. It is like releasing your children, when it's time for them to go.

I hoped to harbor some Monarchs this summer, as well. But it was a weird year: I saw no caterpillars on my Milkweed plants at all. And hardly any Monarchs in the yard. (!)

The Summer's Daylilies

I like to (informally) hybridize and grow day lilies from the "crosses". It's easy to Google the instructions for how to do this process. Most of these photos are of the results. One or two exceptions, including the spectacular yellow and red above: it belongs to my neighbor and came from a grower in Indiana.

"The Lady and the Unicorn" by Tracy Chevalier

This slim, well-crafted novel of the late Middle Ages in France and Belgium imagines a lovely story behind the creation of a masterful series of ornamental tapestries. It is an ideal story for people who like romance, art, fabrics, textiles, stories about European culture, flowers and so on.

After reading the novel, I got on You Tube and viewed several lovely videos showing the production of modern, hand loomed ornamental art tapestries. The process is much like the way the tapestries were produced in the novel; of course, the studios in the modern era are large, light, airy, clean and climate controlled, so the artisans don't have to freeze in winter (since no fire could be situated near the work) or suffer from heat in summer.

It is like seeing them again...

If you come across a photo of loved ones, long gone, that you have never seen before, it is like seeing the people all over again. These photographs were among my late Uncle's things, his Mother (my Grandmother) in the center. A dear family friend on the left. In the group on the right, Uncle Ernie is the man on the left. 

Together Again...but sadly, a note of "passing"

I learned that the unshakably somber mood I felt last evening was justified. Our nearly 90 year old Uncle Ernie passed away to be among his family again.

The photo above, likely from 1928 by his apparent age, shows him on my Mother's lap, flanked by  6 year old fraternal twin sisters. Lots of wonderful memories and beautiful photos and a few descendants remain. So passes time; may all rest in peace.

Between La Porte and Brandon, Iowa on the Cedar Valley Trail

Typical verdant scene from a bridge along the Cedar River in Iowa.

The Cedar Valley Road is an extinct rail line; this old station building in Brandon, IA still stands, but is dilapidated.

To my fascination with exotic Iris colors; I love those golden browns in a park along the trail.

One More from the Jewel Box Bank in Grinnell, IA

This magnificent, glowing stained glass window in a bank building designed by Louis Sullivan in 1915.