Variegated Fritillary and bees

Just a beautiful Variegated Fritillary Butterfly on a "beautiful flower" as Mason says as he snaps that bloom off and gives it to me.
Mason does love to pick his Granny's flowers,

but on this day the butterfly was allowed to enjoy the bloom by itself.

That is until the bee came along.

And then a second bee came along, and the butterfly was gone.

Notice the pollen sac on the 2nd bee.

Why I don't have Hummingbird feeders at my house

This is why I don't have Hummingbird feeders at my house. All of these photographs were taken last year at my neighbor's house after I took my feeders down.

I tried again this year, but the bees returned.

And you thought ants were a problem.

The last photograph was taken next to Bill's garden. I think he was trying to pull them away from the feeders, but it didn't work. This one was taken at the same time as the others.

Bees from the summer

Thought it was about time for another splash of color in the dreary winter.

These were taken on a Blanket Plant bloom. I love the Blanket Plant, because it is so bright and pretty. Also because it attracts the bees and the butterflies.

This last photograph is a bee again, but I do not know the name of the plant it is on. I would appreciate the name if anybody knows what it it. It is shaped like a little bush, but it does not continue to grow in height. It does spead out, and does seem to multiple fairly fast. It came from the yard of the house John and Lindsey had when they first married. The leaves turn a beautiful mix of yellow/orange/red in the fall.

Bee on corn in neighbor's garden

These were obviously at least a couple of months ago. The garden is now gone. The honey bees were everywhere this summer. They sure did their job in Bill's garden. And gave me something to photograph.

Bee on yellow daylily

Some photos I took earlier in the summer. Since I got the laptop have been going through photographs I have been taking all year.

Notice the 2nd bee in the bottom photo.

Hovering bee

This is also from Veterans Park in Spring City, Tennessee. When the woodpecker was gone I heard this noise, and this bee was hovering in front of me. I was having trouble getting the auto focus to pick him up. Believe or not, I had to change to manual focus, focused on him, and snapped. He hovered that long.My number 1 critic (husband) said I should have taken the picture from the front of the bee. Even if I could have gotten on the other side of the bee, I didn't think that fast.

Bee on pink zinnia

In this top photograph it appears the bee is covered in pollen.But in the next 2 photographs I think it might be a pollen sack that Ecobirder mentioned several days ago.

This is the first post I prepared after getting ADSL, love it! It is sooooooo fast. I now agree with Ecobirder, don't know how I was blogging without ADSL. That was the disadvantage of where I live. We finally got it on our country road (think I had a little to do with that one). It is GREAT! Won't have to sit in front of the computer nearly as much, can get out and take those photographs to post.

If on occasion the photographs are small again, it means I prepared either the photo size or the actual post before I got ADSL. Not to worry, they will go right back to the larger size.

Thank you to everybody that has sent comments and encouragement about my hand. Prayer and the COLD water did it. Can't tell anything happened.

Butterlies on the milkweed

These were taken in July behind my house in the hay field. Not too good of hay, but great for the butterflies. Notice the 1st photograph has a Skipper, Buckeye, Variegated Fritillary and a bee all on the same bloom.I went in the house and came back out and captured the Monarch.


I also saw American Painted Lady, but did not get a good photograph of it.

By the way, my hand is good. I kept it in ice water as long as I could stand, then out for a few minutes and back in. Did this for about 1 hour, looks like I am not going to have any problems. Will be able to tell later this evening I am sure. I hope the hummingbird enjoys what I was making him.

Macro of Hardy Hibiscus

Macro of a hardy hibiscus.I was minding my own business, trying to concentrate when along came this bee or insect. Not sure what this green thing is.

Bees visiting the flowers

You never know what you will find when you stop to smell the flowers.

Coneflower

Next I had to look from the top.

Then today I was lucky enough to catch the bee on the coneflower, but the light on the flower was better yesterday (top photo).

Bumblebee covered in pollen

This bumblebee is taking all the pollen from this hollyhock bloom. The photo was taken at Ruby's house. Thanks again for inviting me over.

Bee on Poppy

A friend invited me over to take photos of her flowers.We also went to her neighbor's house.This bee on a poppy was taken in her neighbor's yard.Ruby, thanks for the invitation I got several great photos.

Spiderwort

When I brought this home (without blooms) from my son's yard I thought it was a daylily. Boy, was I surprised when it started blooming. You have to look in the morning, or you won't see this one in bloom.This bee seems to enjoy it as much as I do.

Bee on blue flower

These photos were taken outside the Mills Convention Center in Gatlinburg, Tennessee this spring.