Monday, May 03, 2010

POLYPHEMUS MOTHS

today hubs found two polyphemus moths on our driveway. they looked battered; i like to think due to a night of trysting, rather than due to the storm we had... this is the male...the female at left and the male on the right...
to give you an idea of the size of these moths, here's the male in my hand... neither moth could walk or fly... it didn't look like the female had laid her eggs yet...
here's a last shot of the afternoon sun lighting the potager afire before the big storm undid most of the tulips...
some close ups... veronica 'water perry'... the flower is about the size of a lentil.
allium 'silver spring' about to pop...
camassia...
broom...
a container in the asian square garden with alliums and thrift...
i finally put my deck pots together and i really like this one. i can't wait till the spikes fill in a bit more and i hope the s african daisy continues to bloom... i've not had one before...
on the deck, always ready to mock me!
spring is so grand! i've been under the weather this week, and will have to catch up on blogging!

8 comments:

miss m said...

Such beautiful specimens ! Luna moth is what I see more around here. If they share the same life span, a week is about it. Their time was probably up.

Your blooms and containers are looking fabulous ! How's the obelisk's clematis coming along ?

Don't tell me my nasty cold got you too ...

miss m said...

ps. Looking at a close-up of the potager, are your toms already planted ?

Gloria Freshley Art and Design said...

Such beautiful photos! I LOVE the photos of the bird in the sprinkler -- the water. The light! I could spend hours looking at the photos on your blog. Do you have a flickr site?

Anonymous said...

Quite a sight those moths Em!
Interesting to see how they differ in colour - the female looks quite a bit more yellow in colouring.

Sounds like the storm threatened to take more than the tulips... this bad weather...is it usually like this...it seems you are forever getting over some bad weather scenario Em.

OK...smartie-pants (NOTE: affectionate australian term of endearment! ... how do you photograph a flower the size of a lentil?

Iwas so impressed then i saw the 'silverspring' about to pop and I am blissed out ....the colours on that opened flower!!!! Palest blues with the deep carmine.

OK...then the camassia!
impressive indeed.

Get better Em....and hope you feel good very soon and the week keeps on getting better!
Sophia

Sophie Munns said...

well... anonymous...
I must go to bed i Im that tired...hitting the wrong buttons...
S

Anonymous said...

That blue container is fabulous! And those moths are wonderful. I do love butterflies and moths in my garden. I am sure the neighbors think I am quite crazy out there photographing every butterfly that passes by!

Connie said...

Neat photos! We had a tremendous wind storm here a couple days ago...thankfully we came through okay, but some friends had a tree limb fall on their house and do a lot of damage.

The African Daisy should continue to bloom if you keep it deadheaded. Love that blue container!

em said...

miss m, i love the luna moths, but we rarely see them. i just planted the clematis in the potager, and i hope they do bloom this year. i got a kingfisher and a guernsey cream. i am still recovering and the pollen is not helping. i hope you are well, and thanks so much for the comments! btw, i have planted my toms!

gloria, thanks for the stupendous comment. i made a flickr account ( i'm garden fool there) but i don't get what the advantage over this blog would be...

sophia, thanks for the wonderful comments! they key to photographs like that is having a quite expensive lens. i don't use a tripod, so i hold really still, hold my breath and squeeze. i also take many shots, and at that distance only about 1 in 4 are really in focus. i make up for my inexperience with enthusiasm! i really love to take photos. thanks for asking!

ms robin, i'll have to check out the butterflies on your site! thanks!

connie, thanks for the visit! i love the s african daisy... i wonder if it's hard to over winter?